With both arms, Jill shoved her away.
The music stopped.
Nenetl was back in her own form, and the smooth face had the lines of a frown. ‘I never make mistakes, but perhaps I made one with you.’
Nenetl’s foreboding demeanour made Jill tense, and she pulled a crackle of electricity between her fingers, but none came.
‘In this place, you’re stripped to the core,’ Nenetl said, and her long dress made way for a purple and back jumpsuit. ‘Your powers are useless. Come here if you wanna fight me.’
Jill took a quick step forward, raised her arms to block her view, and delivered a hard forward kick.
Just before she could hit her target, Nenetl stepped to the side, and raised Jill’s leg so that she fell on her back.
Even in this place the impact hurt, and Jill let out a whimper as the air was squeezed from her lungs. But she wasn’t going to quit; the pain filled her with adrenaline and anger.
Nenetl took slow steps, watching as Jill reeled on the ground.
Jill reminded herself of hand-to-hand combat. Ideally, she’d be close and surprise the enemy, but this was now impossible. Unless…
Nenetl acted as though she were taking a walk in the park. Jill coughed and held her chest, trying to seem more vulnerable. She planted a foot firmly against the ground and spat at Nenetl’s boots in front of her.
‘Is that all you’ve got?’
Jill shot herself up with a surprise uppercut, but she missed. Again, the Shade had moved too fast, and before she knew it, Nenetl’s elbow met the corner of her eye.
Jill staggered away. Blood seeped from the wound above her eye, but she didn’t care.
She charged Nenetl, jumped on her and pulled her hair with all the rage she could muster, and for a moment she thought Nenetl was suffering, but her face showed only mild amusement before she slammed Jill down.
She spat blood on the dark ground she lay on, and squealed as her shoulder flared with pain. She had broken something upon hitting the ground. She tried to pull on E, but in this space, she was powerless.
Nenetl towered above her. ‘Think we should end this here?’
Jill took a deep breath, which hurt her side, and kicked Nenetl’s shin with the heel of her boot.
Nenetl reeled and took a step back. Jill tried to get up, but the pain was too much.
‘That’s what I thought,’ said Nenetl. ‘Why stop when you’re having so much fun?’
Nenetl took a few light steps towards Jill and kicked her face before she could do anything.
For a moment everything went dark and numb.
Then the pain inside her head made Jill let out a muffled cry. Her nose was bleeding and broken. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth.
Panting and throbbing in agony, she knew she couldn’t win. She was powerless in Nenetl’s world.
She thought of Belinda, back in the ship recovering, and how she yearned to get back to her. The thought of being with her made Jill’s insides tingle, and she made an audible yelp at the realisation.
‘There’s something you’re missing,’ she muttered, and crawled away from Nenetl. ‘You and your world miss the key ingredient, and you don’t even see what it is.’
Nenetl stepped closer. ‘That’s what Efia said, but you’re both wrong.’
A hard kick caused Jill’s ribcage to rattle, and the pain clouded her mind as she screamed. She found her face under Nenetl’s boot, squeezing her cheek against the dark ground. She drifted at the edge of consciousness, and the only thing she could think of was that she loved Belinda and Belinda loved her. And the deeper she went, the more vivid the picture of Belinda became, and the more powerful the force gathering at her core.
‘I have it,’ Jill mumbled.
Nenetl lifted her boot, and peered down at her, the dark strands of her hair falling on Jill’s face like burning coils. ‘What was that?’
‘Belinda has it,’ Jill said, and coughed blood in agony. And at the same time her insides tingled more and more. ‘I have it, but you don’t.’
Nenetl frowned. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Love,’ she muttered with her last breath. ‘I love her.’
And as she said it, she flopped on her back. Her body was spent, but the feeling inside her grew stronger by the second. She gave in to that power, and involuntarily arched her back and tensed her outstretched arms. The power at her core expanded faster and faster. In a moment she was trembling at the brink, unable to feel or think of anything else but Belinda and the force inside her.
She couldn’t hold it in anymore. The powerful stream that ran inside her gushed out from her chest.
It struck Nenetl, pushing her away from Jill’s view, blinded by the sudden explosion of light.
Jill panted on the floor, a piercing scream ringing in her ears. But it wasn’t her own. She crawled up on her knees and lifted her head.
‘It’s impossible!’ Nenetl screamed as her face flickered to Belinda’s and back, and contorted in rage.
Jill could not think. Her breathing quickened, as the energy gathered inside her again. She staggered up to stand; all her pain pushed back, the only thing she felt was the frenzy inside her, an uncontrollable spiral that burst out of her chest, more powerful than the last time.
Nenetl’s form flickered back and forth between Belinda and the goddess faster and faster, as she cried out, ‘Stop now, or she will die!’
Even if Jill had wanted to stop, she couldn’t. Instead of her running the energy, the energy ran her, and beamed white light into the agonized figure of Nenetl and Belinda.
Then the stream stopped, and Jill fell on her knees, panting.
In front of her, the form of the Shade had settled onto Nenetl.
‘Now, you will both die,’ Nenetl wailed with a nasty grimace, her black and purple hair a mess over her face.
Jill was breathing heavily. Her heart was pounding hard and fast. She closed her eyes, and the only thing she saw was the sweet figure of Belinda.
She was exhausted, but her body was burning from within, the power coursing through her veins, faster and harder than before. She didn’t know if she could take it anymore; maybe Nenetl was right, maybe the intensity would kill her, but there was nothing she could do. The power spiralled inside her, and all she could see or feel was Belinda, as the powers ran out of her control.
Every muscle in her body tensed harder than before, and static overlaid her vision. She was fainting, but the force inside her just kept increasing, and increasing, and increasing…
Jill couldn’t hold it anymore; she gave in to the final release and screamed as a massive sparkling light shot out through her chest.
Behind the static and the light, Nenetl squirmed in agony as her form withered, her skin like burning paper, blowing back in Jill’s outflux of pure power.
Body and mind depleted, Jill let the sweet light take her in.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Henning stood beside Jill, holding her hand, as she pulled on his E. Sofia held her other hand. Jill was channelling their energy and her own to fight Nenetl, and to Henning it seemed as if she was pulling harder and harder. He wondered how long they would last if this continued. He was already feeling lightheaded, and he wasn’t sure whether Jill was in control, or if Nenetl was draining Jill, and them along with her. His hand trembled as he held on to Jill’s.
A sudden surge of energy, like a pushback of E that wasn’t Jill’s, Sofia’s or his, traced through from Jill, and hit him like an electric shock.
For maybe a second everything went to black, and he lost contact with Jill.
As he came to, he noticed Jill expending energy unlike she had ever done before, but on the other side of her, Sofia had fallen unconscious.
He knelt beside Sofia and placed a palm against her cheek. ‘Are you all right?’
She blinked, frowned, and touched her forehead. ‘Ouch. I guess so. Did we win?’
The colour of Jill’s flow turned to
purple and black, and instead of the white shimmer, it now flowed directly into the purple shimmer. What grabbed his attention, though, was that even if he and Sofia weren’t powering her anymore, it seemed as if her stream were growing thicker.
‘It’s still on,’ Henning said.
The power flowed from Jill’s chest stronger than ever, but now she was shaking in what seemed like a trance.
‘It’s changed colour,’ Sofia noticed, and tried to get up.
Henning nodded. Jill didn’t seem to be in control anymore.
‘Should we do something?’ asked Sofia.
‘The only way we can help her is to give her more power, but you’re in no shape to do it.’
‘I don’t care,’ Sofia said. ‘I’m gonna do this whether it knocks me out or not.’
There was passion in her eyes, which told him it was useless trying to convince her otherwise.
Henning nodded, and went around Jill. She was shaking, her chest pushed forward, arms outstretched. Her eyes were closed, but seemed to move rapidly underneath the eyelids. He glanced at Sofia and extended his arm. They exchanged looks and took both of Jill’s hands at the same time.
Just as his hand touched Jill’s, she shuddered, and he could feel her drawing from him stronger than ever. He found himself gasping for air as her stream grew thicker and more powerful. She was shaking and whimpering, and then she screamed.
The flow died out. Jill let out an exhausted wail and she fell motionless on the floor.
Sofia’s eyes said the same thing Henning was thinking: Did we blow it?
Henning’s heart skipped a beat. Is she all right?
Sofia dropped down to check on Jill.
Henning was about to kneel beside her, too, but was interrupted by the doctor calling from the sick bay. ‘Our patient’s having a seizure.’
‘I’m coming,’ Henning said to the internal comms, then turned back to Sofia. ‘Is she…’
‘There’s a faint pulse.’
‘Good. I’ll check on Killock.’
He was about to exit the bridge, when the pilot said, ‘Sir, on the screen.’
Henning stopped by the door and looked at the main screen. All the streams of energy to the white shimmer were gone. The ships floated silently around it. The stream from the white shimmer to Grangar was gone, too, but the planet seemed to stay still. Its colour was also changing, as if it were cooling down. But the most interesting thing was what the picture didn’t have: the purple shimmer. It had disappeared completely. The ship’s sensors found nothing.
‘What happened?’ asked the co-pilot.
A smile crept onto Henning’s face. ‘I think we…’
Sofia’s wide eyes reflected worry, but the corners of her mouth twitched upwards. ‘We stopped Grangar?’
‘I think so,’ Henning said.
‘What about Nenetl?’
‘I don’t know.’
On screen, the white shimmer burst into four smaller elements in various colours and took off in different directions. Of them, the blue one, was heading straight for them. The pilot gasped, and the co-pilot said, ‘Incoming!’ as the shimmering blue bolt gained speed.
Henning had seen that stream before. ‘It’s all right.’
The stream hit, but nobody in the ship felt anything. The pilot shook his head. ‘What was that?’
The co-pilot looked at Henning for answers, and when he turned, he saw the person in the middle of the bridge behind the cockpit.
Aalto had materialised just behind Jill. He wore a white robe, and his skin was smooth, devoid of spots, and his hair dark. Unlike the frail old man he’d been, he was like a man in his prime.
Henning bowed his head. ‘Master.’
Aalto looked down at Jill. ‘You did something amazing; we all felt it when it struck. The overwhelming love you managed to summon. It was extraordinary—’
‘Will she be all right?’ Sofia asked.
Aalto nodded. ‘She has been through things a human being shouldn’t have to endure, and she must rest now.’
‘What about Nenetl?’
‘She is without power and form, and will be so for many human lifetimes. Now the power that bound the creatures of the dark has dispersed, they will be reluctant to pursue the fight.’
‘The planet’s receding!’ said the pilot.
‘That’s right,’ Aalto said. ‘Now free from her power, Grangar seeks solitude.’
‘Pilot,’ Henning said, motioning at Jill. ‘Help us get her to the infirmary.’
The pilot pulled a stretcher from the cabinet on the back of the bridge and they got Jill on it. Henning and the pilot lifted her up and followed Sofia through to the infirmary.
The infirmary glowed green as Efia tended to Belinda. When they arrived, she raised her head to look up at them. ‘Ah, that is her.’
Henning and the pilot lifted Jill onto the adjacent bed. ‘How is she?’ he asked.
‘She has suffered physical injuries, and a mental spike from Nenetl,’ Efia said.
‘Will she be all right?’
‘I can’t promise you anything.’
In the backroom of the Spit City Shuttler-shop, Evie bit her lower lip and tasted blood. Something had happened, but on the screens, it was all a blur.
She jumped when something crashed down from the ceiling. She swivelled around. Sparks flew from the electricity of the mess on the floor in the middle of the room; it seemed that a light beam had fallen from the ceiling. There was also a yellow shimmer that, like a small tornado, twirled and coalesced into an opaque shape the size of a human.
Tan and muscular, Warrigal smiled between his long locks as he stood beside the blasted lamp in nothing but a loincloth.
‘Sorry about that. I came as fast as I could.’
For a moment Evie lost her breath, then managed to mutter, ‘Did we win?’
‘We did.’
‘What happed to Nenetl?’
‘She is scattered in dust,’ said Warrigal, and made a sprinkling motion with his fingers in the air. ‘Her energy is no more than the mass of dust particles. But eventually, she will be back. In a few hundred years perhaps. But before that, we must make this world resilient, and now we can.’
Evie stood up. ‘So, we won?’
‘Yes,’ Warrigal said.
Evie put her arms around him and rested her head against his chest.
Berossus clambered over to his father in the cockpit.
‘It stopped,’ Oberen said. ‘It all stopped.’
The stream from Henning’s ship was no more, and where the purple shimmer had pulsed was nothing. Also, the white shimmer was gone.
‘What happens now?’ Berossus asked.
A bright red stream appeared suddenly and before he could do anything, it was already hitting their ship. Berossus lost his balance and stumbled back in anticipation of the impact.
There was no impact. The red stream was gone.
He thought he heard something and glanced back. A robed man had appeared. He wore a hood over his head so that his face was hidden, and in his right hand held a gleaming blade. On instinct, Berossus stepped back.
Oberen stood up and turned. ‘Shinzaburo.’
His face covered by darkness, the Shade spoke. ‘I have been watching your path, in Osseiria, Nagakalos, and Screprenia. The Thaqaran have been in my sights for a long time. I failed to protect you in Thogawa, and I am sorry.’
Oberen bowed, and said, ‘I am grateful.’
Shinzaburo bowed, too. When he rose, he turned into a red shimmer, and disappeared through the floor.
Berossus stared at the spot where he had stood. ’What was that all about?’
‘I always knew I had a guardian angel.’
Jill floated in the light; she was devoid of worry in a buoyant sensation in which everything was perfect. Someone was talking, but it was far away. She had nothing to do and nowhere to go, and she relished the calm where she was like a river flowing easily through the forest in the early morning hou
rs.
A distinct voice cut over the chatter; it was a friendly voice, and said, ‘Thank you.’
It took a while for her to recognise it as Tommy Huckey, a boy she had known when they were kids. He was inside Grangar and had helped her break Nenetl’s spell.
‘No,’ she said. ‘I should thank you.’
The background chatter grew louder, and she realised it was an expression of gratitude in different words and languages, most of which she didn’t understand. Tommy said, ‘We are one Grangar, but we are many. You released us—the billions of us—you set us free, and we are eternally grateful.’
The thankful words gained volume by the second, engulfing Jill with an overflow of gratitude and love.
And when the voices suddenly quieted, she opened her eyes.
Lying next to her was Belinda. She smiled.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Berossus kissed Mianea to the sounds of ooh and aah from the wedding guests.
The Andron homeland bishop had just blessed their marriage under the biggest tree in Avalon, surrounded by their families, friends, and a number of new Avalonians. But they all vanished in his mind as she looked at him with loving eyes, as he did her. The trip with Oberen and Efia had made him realise what was important in life. Freed from the monster within, he would be the best husband for Mianea, and the best father for their children.
Lifting his gaze from the face of his lovely wife, Berossus regarded his father, who stood with Inanna right beside them. After so many years, they were back together, and took a renewed blessing for their marriage, too; a double wedding of sorts.
Most of the guests were from Mianea’s big family, but Berossus was glad that some of the best people had come. There were his workmates from Gemma Central, and his friends from FIST. Tredd sat beside Eddie and his family. Behind them sat Henning, Aino, and Sofia. Evie was there, too.
Jill Faith hadn’t come. Berossus had never been close to her, but he remembered well the time when they were locked in a small room on Vorlar Block’s ship. She had always been a strong one, but facing and defeating Nenetl had revealed an out-of-this-world heroine. After what she had gone through, Berossus respected her need for peace and quiet.
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