In the farmsteads along the Verge, he at last caught a glimpse of Eddy, his ex and nemesis. Interesting. He shifted to see things from Eddy’s point of view.
There were three of Gunner’s kids—the kids from Agartha—lying unconscious on the floor.
The three he’d captured trying to catch him by surprise, he’d guess.
And the fourth….
He gasped. It was Gunner. So that was how they’d gotten to him. But Gunner hadn’t been there with the others.
“Hello, Preacher Man.”
Davian spun around to find Gunner standing behind him. He was different. Taller. Stronger. Younger? “Gunner. I’m so glad to see you.”
“Where. Are. They?”
“Who?” He had a pretty good idea who Gunner was looking for. He could trap the man like he’d trapped the others. “It’s just me here.” Davian played for time as he constructed another virtual cell.
“The kids. My kids.” Gunner advanced on him, seeming to grow larger with each step. “And my name’s Jayson, not Gunner.”
Davian sighed. “Gunner, Jayson, what does it matter?” He reached to ensnare the man, whatever his name was, to banish him from sight until he could deal with him at his leisure.
Nothing happened.
The man grinned. “I taught you all those tricks, remember? And I’m better at them than you are.” Gunner leapt at him.
Davian reached again, and then he had the girl, Marissa, struggling in his grasp.
Gunner stopped short. “You can’t hurt her. She’s not real here.”
“Oh but I can. I can burn her out. Enough power, applied in the right place, and her mind will be reduced to a cinder in her head.”
Jayson growled. “Let her go.”
“I don’t think so.” He stared warily at the man, his former servant. “Time for you to back up.” He held Marissa’s virtual form by the neck.
Jayson snarled but took two steps back.
“Farther.”
He backed up against the wall. His angry glare could have disemboweled an elephant.
“Now you’re going to let me put you in a safe place—”
There was a huge crack and a chunk of the ceiling fell in, slamming him with rubble.
A PIECE of the farmhouse’s roof came off, showering Eddy with water and debris. He threw himself across Marissa and the others, trying to shield them with his body.
Rain poured in through the opening, and the rest of the structure shook ominously.
“Everyone okay?” Eddy shouted. The howling of the wind made it difficult for him to hear his own voice.
“We’re over here!” Eddy looked over to see Sven and Sandra huddled in one corner.
They crawled toward him, putting their bodies between the kids and harm’s way too.
“Santi?”
No response.
“Santi!” Eddy sat up and looked around the ruined storeroom in the dim light. “Keep an eye on these four!”
Sven nodded. “Go.”
Eddy made his way toward the wall where they’d been sitting. It had partially collapsed. Bits of the ceiling were falling down around him.
“Santi!” he called again, before spotting a dark-haired head partly covered in rubble. “No, no, no, no.” He scrambled over to where Santi lay on his stomach and started pulling debris off the body. “Please be okay. Please be okay.”
Sven came over to help, and they removed the remains of the ceiling and wall that covered Santi. He threw the last of the boards away.
Eddy slipped his hand under Santi’s neck, looking for his carotid artery. Nothing for a second, two, three…. “There it is. Oh thank God.” He knelt. “Santi, can you hear me?”
For his answer, he got a long, drawn-out groan. He kissed Santi’s head. “You’re gonna be all right.” Eddy stared up at the dark storm, willing it to go away.
They couldn’t take much more of this.
THERE WAS a sharp crack.
Marissa looked up to see a green vine winding its way into the room. More followed, ripping the roof off piece by piece, peeling it back to reveal the sky.
She took advantage of her captor’s moment of distraction to shift her form, becoming mist just as she’d done to help clear Jayson’s nightmares.
She slipped out of his grasp and flew to Jayson, taking his hand. “Can you block him?”
He nodded. “But he’s very strong.”
“Use my strength.” She probed her surroundings.
Whatever had happened had weakened Davian’s blocks. She found Danny and Delancy and let them out of their cages.
They ran to join her, taking her hand on one side and Jayson’s on the other.
Davian snarled at them. “You think that’s going to make a difference against me? I live here now. The world mind is a part of me. You’re just visitors.”
“Maybe so, but we’ve been here a lot longer than you.”
Davian spun around to see Colin and another person. She? He? They were a stranger to Marissa, though they looked strangely familiar.
Davian cursed. He began to grow, stretching upward and outward like a nightmare.
Maybe they could reach the real world once more. Marissa called out in her head. Andy!
I’m here. The voice filled Marissa with hope.
Davian towered over them now, and he laughed.
I need you. All of you. Geez, Davian was strong.
We’re here. All the Liminal kids are with me.
The strength of Andy and the others passed into Marissa, and she passed it on to Jayson. She expected him to grow to challenge Davian, but instead he became calmer. More solid. Stronger.
They formed a circle around Davian, who reached down to try to scatter them with the back of his hand.
Jayson shouted, and a shock went around the circle.
Marissa held on tight as energy coursed through her.
Davian froze.
Jayson squeezed her hand. “Hold on.”
He lifted his arms, and the rest of them did the same.
Davian came back to life, thrashing around inside the circle. He couldn’t reach them. He snarled. He was trapped. “What the hell are you doing to me?”
“Putting you back in the box.”
Davian began to shrink, his face turning white, then burning red with anger. “Oh hell no!”
Jayson pulled them closer. “That’s right,” he said calmly. “I saw your darkest fear when I put you in here.”
Davian shook, his face turning almost black. “You can’t do this to me! I’ll fucking kill you. I’ll kill you all!”
Marissa’s arms were burning, the power coursing through her making her sweat. She trembled but held firm. She glanced over at Danny. He was sweating too. She nodded at him.
Davian had shrunk to his original size. He lunged out and slashed Delancy across the throat.
She clutched at her neck, breaking the circle, and disappeared.
EDDY HELD Santi in his arms, sheltered under the protection of a half-collapsed wall where they’d dragged the teens. Sven and Sandra protected them with their own bodies, blocking some of the rain.
Delancy sat up, taking a huge, gasping breath, clutching at her throat.
“Hey!” Eddy put a hand out on her shoulder. “It’s okay. You’re back in the land of the living.”
She was breathing heavily, her eyes darting back and forth. She struggled to take in air.
“Deep breaths.” He rubbed her back.
She calmed herself, putting her head down between her knees and slowing her breathing.
At last she looked up, the crazed look gone from her face.
“What happened?” Eddy asked when she was able to look at him.
“The Preacher. He… cut my throat.” She reached up to feel her neck again. “It felt so real.”
Sandra put her arms around the girl. “It’s gonna be okay.” She rocked Delancy back and forth.
Eddy ran his fingers through Santi’s hair. “You’re gonna
be okay, handsome,” he whispered.
Was it his imagination, or was the rain finally slowing?
“DELANCY!” MARISSA shouted.
Davian snarled like a cornered animal.
“Complete the circle!” Jayson shouted in her ear. “She’ll be okay!”
Marissa reached out to grasp Colin’s arm. Power surged through the circle once more.
Davian started to shrink again, and a glowing box appeared around his feet. He tried to strike out at them again, but this time the circle held.
The box grew up around him. “You can’t fucking do this to me.” He tried to pull his feet out of the box, but they moved like he was standing in molasses. “Don’t do this,” he pleaded. “Please don’t do this to me. Don’t put me in the box.” Davian was crying now.
Marissa turned away.
The box closed over his head, and the screams stopped.
She started to let go of Jayson’s hand.
“Not yet.” He squeezed her hand.
The box shrank.
“What’s going to happen to him?” She wasn’t sure why she cared. He’d looked so sad, so forlorn. So broken.
The box shrank in half, and then in half again, and eventually down to nothing.
It disappeared with a small pop.
“He’s trapped, hopefully for good.”
The world around them shimmered and changed.
Marissa looked around. They were standing in a clean round room at the top of the tower. The debris was gone, and so was Davian.
Jayson pulled Marissa and Danny to his chest and hugged them. “I’m so sorry for what I did to you, to your mothers.”
Marissa hugged him back. It was strange, but at the same time, it felt like completion.
He was her father.
She’d always wondered what that would feel like. He had fought for her, for them. That had to be enough for now.
They’d figure out the rest, in time.
THE RAIN stopped.
Eddy peered out at the sky. The clouds were dissipating, and what was left of the local vegetation reasserted its glow, leaving them in a dim, wrecked gloom.
He looked down to see Santi staring up at him. “Hey.” He cradled Santi’s head with his hand.
Santi flinched at his touch, but only a little. “Hey. What happened?”
“I don’t know. I think it’s over.” Eddy leaned down and kissed Santi’s forehead. “You got hit in the head by some falling debris.”
“Ah. That explains the splitting headache.” Santi reached up to touch his temple. “That’s weird. I think my loop’s broken.”
“We can have it checked out back in Micavery.” Not that there was much they could do about it if it was truly shorted out.
“Is the storm over?” Santi sat up, wincing.
“I think so.” Eddy gave Santi another quick kiss, this one on the lips, and got up to look around.
The farmhouse was destroyed, but most of the barn was still standing, though it had taken a beating. Cassie had survived her second great storm. She nickered at him, and he rubbed her neck affectionately.
Trees were burned or knocked down all around the property, but some remained. Forever plants grew back quickly.
The people of Forever would survive and rebuild. They would make it past this.
Santi stumbled up to him. “What a shitstorm.”
“You’re telling me.” Eddy put his arm around Santi’s waist.
“So, do we have a shot?”
Eddy nodded. “We can rebuild. It will take time, but—”
“No, you idiot.” He grinned. “You and me.”
Eddy looked at Santi and laughed. “I hope so. I think I’m kind of falling for you.”
For his response, Santi kissed him, hard.
Behind them, Marissa and the others cheered.
Chapter Fourteen: Changes
MARISSA PACKED up the last of her meager belongings. She was going to live with the Olafs on their farmhold to help them rebuild. She had talked with them over the network via their loops and the world mind, and they seemed like genuinely nice people.
And Matt was there.
After the Dark Day, she and the others had returned with Jayson to the schoolhouse to make the point that it was time for the Liminal kids to live in the real world. Being locked away at the schoolhouse only perpetuated the fears and stereotypes about her kind and what they could do. The youngest would remain with Andy and Shandra for another year or two, but even they would make trips out to see what life on Forever was about.
Still, it didn’t make the actual doing of it any easier.
“Hey, got a minute?” Andy popped her head in the cabin door, looking around. “Where are Danny and Delancy?”
“They went to say goodbye to some of the other kids.”
“Got it.” Andy sat down on her bed and patted the mattress.
Marissa sat down next to her. “What’s up?”
“I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you. Even if—” She poked Marissa in the ribs. “—you disobeyed me and ran off into the wilds.”
Marissa snorted. “The Verge is hardly the wilds.”
“Maybe not, but I was worried to death for you.” Andy sighed. “Just like I’m worried now.”
“I’ll be okay—”
“Oh, I know you will.” She put an arm around Marissa’s shoulder and pulled her close. “I realize I’m not your mother, but you kids are as dear to me as if you were my own.” She kissed Marissa’s cheek. “You be careful out there, and do us proud.”
Marissa was surprised to feel tears at the corners of her eyes. “I will.” She gave Andy a hug.
When they separated, Andy started to leave.
At the door, she turned and gave Marissa a smile. It was as full of sadness as it was of cheer. “You come back and see me, okay?”
“I will.”
Then she was gone.
Marissa finished packing her things in her carry sack and went to the door.
She too turned, taking one last look at the place that had been her home for almost ten years.
It was simple. And small.
It had been hers.
Then she turned to look at the magnificent sweep of the world awaiting her, the Anatov Mountains arrayed around and above her, the glow of the Verge, where the grasses had already grown back after the violence of the storm, and in the distance, Micavery.
“Adventure awaits,” she said softly and took the first step toward her new home.
EDDY HAULED yet another log up onto the wagon. They’d almost cleared the Thatch Hill district now, reclaiming the larger pieces of wood to be prepped for new construction. The rest would be thrown into the dissolution pits to be broken down by the world mind.
Half of Micavery had been destroyed in the storm. Thirty had died, by the latest count, far fewer than Eddy had feared. Still, that meant funerals up and down the length of Forever, with the bodies ceremoniously lowered into the pits. Everything on Forever was a cycle, as he had learned over the last fifteen years.
“That’s about it for this run.” He eyed the wagon.
“Gonna keep the mill busy for weeks,” Santi agreed, pulling off his work gloves and giving Eddy a kiss.
It would be a year or two before things got back to normal again, by Eddy’s best guess.
The two of them had settled into an easy rhythm with each other, and they’d even gotten physical a couple times.
They’d had long talks about it, and Santi had assured Eddy that, while he had no desire to have sex, sometimes he enjoyed bringing his partner pleasure. Eddy still wasn’t sure about it all, but he’d decided they would figure it out. He was quickly learning what an amazing guy Santi was and how relatively unimportant sex was in the grand scheme of things.
They hopped onto the wagon and Santi took the reins, setting the horse off toward the mill. People waved at them as they passed.
The story of the Dark Day had gotten around, and Eddy found his
public profile had gone up quite a bit.
There was talk about organizing an official local government to deal with disasters and disputes and all the things that happened when a bunch of humans rubbed elbows.
“What do you think about me running for mayor?” he asked Santi.
“I think that you’d make a great one.” Santi gave him the look.
“What?”
“It’s just that you have your hands full as it is. Could you really take on being the mayor too?”
Eddy thought about it for a moment. “With you at my side, I think I can do anything.”
LANYA WAS hard at work at her station when Colin found her there. She was feeling something approximating female—it was strange to remember a time when a precise gender had seemed so important.
Those were Ana’s memories.
She’d chosen the new name as the best of a number of questionable alternatives—Lexana, AnaLex, Lexsta—that had all made her groan.
She was surprised how quickly her two perspectives had merged into one.
“What are you working on?” Colin asked, looking over her shoulder.
“A better way for people to get around.” She showed him her three-dimensional sketches, complete with genetic coding.
“Wings?” He arched an eyebrow.
“Well, when you say it that way….”
“No, I mean it’s kind of brilliant. I’m just not sure our colonists are ready for that level of genetic manipulation.”
“You’re probably right. It’s so easy to play God.”
He nodded. “Maybe it’s something we could introduce gradually. A tweak here, a pinch there….”
“It was just an idea.” She turned to give him her full attention. “How goes the cleanup?”
“It’s coming along. I’m working with the authorities, such as they are, in both Darlith and Micavery to set up more of an official government.”
“Good idea.”
“We’re not just a little colony anymore. Speaking of….” He made a grand gesture and a model appeared.
“What is it?”
“The next city for Forever, halfway between Darlith and the sea you’ve been planning.”
The Rising Tide Page 24