by Jack Conner
Toward the temple.
Avery ran. With the boy beside him, he made his way to the large structure, past screaming hordes, through the main room where Uvrista’s rites had been interrupted. As they hurried into the rear passages, Avery heard what sounded like bombs going off outside. Artillery.
Janx and Hildra, both caked in soot and sweat, joined Avery in the halls.
“I was afraid you wouldn’t make it out,” Janx panted.
“We haven’t made it out of anywhere yet,” Avery said.
“But the Device,” Hildra said. “It must be ... ready. Layanna ... sent for us.”
Despite everything, Avery felt a surge of hope. All their work, all their efforts would finally be worth it. He and the others had traveled halfway across the continent, through and under a warzone, just to reach this one, climactic moment.
“I can hardly believe it,” Avery confessed. “In seconds, the Device will be activated and the war will be all but over.”
Janx and Hildra shot each other black looks, but he was in too good a mood to pay much attention.
They passed half a dozen willing sacrifices moving along between a group of priests, and the youth that had been leading Avery received a glance from one of the clergy. “You know the way, sir,” he said to Avery. “I’m not to go past this point.” Avery thanked him and the boy vanished.
The three emerged into the Black Sect’s laboratory to see things much as they had been before. Only now, instead of all eight living members ringing the huge engine-like Device, it was only Layanna, her other-self drawn about her, feverishly completing the Great Work. The others sprawled on the floor or against the walls, recuperating from their exertion, some drinking cups of blood or medicines. The thunder of bombs shook the room.
The priests that had entered behind Avery led their charges forward. The six sacrifices knelt before Layanna and closed their eyes, ready to be taken. Avery felt a shiver, not for the first time.
“No,” one of the Collossum said, and his words fell on Avery’s ears like the pounding of coffin nails, “she’s already fed.”
Avery couldn’t help but stagger back a step. No, he thought. No ... she promised me she would accept no sacrifices ...
Layanna turned her head and met his gaze through the layers of gel and otherworldly fluids. Frowning, she nodded to him once, as if to say, We’ll speak later. Then she indicated the Device—Watch this—and returned to her task. Long moments passed as the room shook and dust drifted down from the ceiling. Then, suddenly, Layanna’s whole amoeba-body convulsed with an effort, and all her available tentacles surged forward and plunged into the Device. She seemed to swell, glow brighter. Her face screwed up in concentration.
And then, just like that, it was done.
The Device changed. Where before it had been a great engine-like construct, now—with lights crackling all around it and with the very air blurring and rippling, as if under intense heat—the whole mass of steel and circuitry that was merely the shell for something much more ... transformed. It burst into light so bright that Avery had to mash his eyes closed, and when the light faded and he could open them again, he saw, right where the Device had been, a sphere seemingly composed of liquid metal, about a foot or so in diameter, hovering off the ground and suspended between two humming machines. No, it hadn’t replaced the Device, it was the Device. Its silvery surface flowed and rippled, as if it were made of liquid mercury. As if it were alive.
Avery stared. Then, along with Janx and Hildra, he laughed. He threw back his head and laughed with joy, even with the sound of gunfire and bombs continuing in the background. He embraced them tightly, first one, then the other. Janx pounded him so hard on the back Avery cried out. All around him the priests, sacrifices, and Black Sect members were likewise exclaiming in joy.
Layanna released her other-self, which vanished with a slurp and burst of light, then, tiredly but wearing the biggest smile Avery had ever seen on her, approached him and threw her arms tightly about him. He was so shocked at first he didn’t know what to do. She’d never allowed herself to display much affection toward him in front of the other R’loth. His unease about her accepting the sacrifice remained, but he hugged her back.
She kissed him. “We did it! We did it!”
“You did it,” Avery said.
Hildra squeezed her on the arm, and Janx gave her a crushing hug.
“Thank you,” Layanna told them. “None of this could have been possible without you.”
“Don’t forget it,” Hildra said. “But we gotta get crackin’, blondie.”
“We’re under attack,” Avery said. As if to accentuate his point, the room shook once more.
“I know,” Layanna said. “They must have sensed the Device was near completion and rushed to attack before we could move it. Hopefully they acted prematurely, before they were ready. Don’t worry, we’re doing everything we can. Every effort is being made to repel them or slow them. There’s nothing more you can do for now.”
“What just happened?” Janx asked, indicating the hovering, rippling sphere in the center of the room.
“Did you just activate it?” Avery said, hopeful.
“No.” Layanna frowned at him, as if he had just said something odd. “That was the final turning of the screw, as it were. I’d hoped you would get here in time. The Device has taken on its final form. What you see now is really only its imprint in this reality.”
Yaslen approached the silver sphere with another Black Secter. Between them they carried a wooden box of curious design, a sort of trunk with a brown leather exterior and gleaming brass fixtures. They brought it under the Device, opened it, then raised it so that the Device sat in a metal-lined depression shaped just for it. When it was safely secure, they snapped the thick lid of the trunk shut, sealing the Device from view. Locks clicked, and they set it down with a thud. Within that trunk rested the fate of the world.
“That will hold the Device until it’s fired,” Layanna said. “It can’t be touched by human hands—meaning ours, too. Only our other-selves can touch it, or special equipment.”
Yaslen swept the Device with a sensor. While he worked, others approached Layanna and said their congratulations. Some wept. Muted gunfire sounded in the distance.
“What did she mean ‘until it’s fired’?” Avery asked Janx and Hildra. “Why can’t they just activate it now?”
Janx frowned as if he’d just tasted something bitter. He rubbed his sweaty, grimy forehead, and furrows appeared under the ministrations of his thick fingers. “Well, that’s the thing, Doc. I guess we never got around to tellin’ you ...”
“Thought she would,” Hildra said, with a hitch of her head. “But that bitch isn’t the explaining type, is she?”
“It’s what Hildra and me were tryin’ to tell you earlier,” Janx said.
“Yes, of course,” Avery said dully. What is all this? Just push the button! He could see no button, but still ...
By this point the Black Sect had quieted and had taken to resting again. Flushed and smiling, hair streaked with sweat, Layanna returned to Avery, but her expression faded a bit when she saw Janx’s and Hildra’s looks.
“What is it?”
“You haven’t told him,” Janx said.
“Told him ...” Layanna looked confused for a moment, but then her eyes widened. She put a hand to her forehead. “Francis, you mean, you don’t know?”
Avery was beginning to grow irritated. “Don’t know what? Obviously, whatever it is, I don’t know it. Please, I don’t care what it is—just tell me.”
“You may wanna sit down,” Hildra said.
“I’m fine. Just spit it out.”
“It’s the Device,” Janx said.
“Yes yes,” Avery nodded. “Just turn it on and we’re done.”
Layanna bit her lip. “Do you ... do you imagine that the Device can simply be turned on? Like a light switch? It is a thing of amazing power—or could be.”
“Could be ..
.”
“It requires vast amounts of extradimensional energy in order to work, Francis.”
“Yes, Janx said. Its fuel. Fine. So then dip it in the Haag ...”
“The river’s energy is a pale shadow of its mother.”
Its mother. His legs felt shaky. Surely she doesn’t mean ... ?
Suddenly heeding Hildra’s advice, he found a chair and sank into it. The others gathered around him, looking fretful and apologetic.
“We wanted to tell you earlier,” Hildra said.
“You were sick,” Janx offered.
“And we thought she would tell you.”
Layanna sighed. “I was ... distracted. In my few hours of rest in the last four days, I just wanted sleep, not ... this. And I thought they would tell you.” She shot Janx and Hildra a look.
Avery ran a hand across his face. “Please, just somebody get it over with. For once and all.”
“It’s the Device,” Janx said. “We have to take it to the Atomic Sea.”
A long moment of silence passed
“What ... what ... why ... ?” Avery said, or tried to. It came out as more of a blubber.
“Only there,” Layanna said, “suffused in its energies, can the Device be activated.”
“Think of a car, Doc,” Janx said. “Here it might look slick as a racer on a showroom floor, but it’s dry as a bone. The Atomic’s its fuel, and it won’t run till it’s there.”
Avery shook his head. “No,” he said. “No. I won’t do it. You’re insane. You’re all insane.”
Janx patted him on the chest. “We’re goin’ on a trip, Doc.”
Something clicked in Avery’s head. “That’s why you’re rebuilding the old train cars, the ones that connect to other countries.”
“Yep,” said Janx.
“You really mean to do it ... to take the Device ... to the fucking sea!” He reached for his flask but found it empty. Blinking, he shook his head. “To the sea! You want to take it to the sea!” The world had begun to spin around him. A hammer pounded the back of his head.
Janx shrugged. “We’ve got the Device.” He gestured to Yaslen and his partner, who were testing out the straps that Avery now saw sprouted from the Device’s box. Satisfied, Yaslen helped fasten the straps around the other’s shoulders. Avery realized it was meant to be worn like a backpack—a heavy, awkward backpack, not unlike the hiking packs he carried into the mountains on his periodic sojourns.
“We’ve got it,” Janx repeated. “And we’ve got a way to the sea that’ll get us there without any mishaps. What could go wrong?”
Avery stared at him. “Did you really just say that?”
Janx chuckled. “It’ll be fine, Doc. You’ll see. Anyway, fine or not, it’s our only hope of ending the war.”
“It’ll be okay, bones,” Hildra said, as Hildebrand scampered up her hook arm onto her back. “You’ll see.”
Avery rattled his flask. “I need a refill.”
Yaslen looked up, having finished scanning the Device.
“How is it?” Layanna asked.
“No leakage,” Yaslen said. “And the key is safely inside.”
“Key?” Avery asked.
“What you see is merely the lock,” Yaslen said. “The key is stored inside it, or perhaps through it, as it occupies another plane, waiting for the right moment to be withdrawn and used. It is actually the element that needs energy from the sea.”
The ground shook beneath their feet, and a huge echoing boom filtered through the layers of stone, the loudest yet. Everyone in the room, save a few Black Secters who were incapable of even that much effort, leapt to their feet. Dust rained down from the ceiling, and Avery blinked it out of his eyes.
“They’re getting close,” he said, needlessly.
Distantly, he heard sounds of screaming.
Janx pulled out his large revolver, and he thumbed the hammer back. “They’re almost at the temple, aren’t they?”
“I’m afraid so,” Layanna said. “Are the train cars ready?”
“They could be better, but they’ll run. I can’t guarantee how far the tracks are good for, but we’ve planned for that.”
Another boom jarred Avery’s knees, and more dust rained down from the ceiling. He thought of the woman with the spider bite and her husband, and their daughter, now probably dead, and all the other people he’d helped over the last four days. Which were alive and which not? And the living, he knew, might not be the lucky ones.
“Why aren’t you gods out there leading your people?” Hildra asked Layanna. “Shouldn’t you be fighting?”
“I will,” Yaslen said. “Layanna’s going with the Device. Only one of us can activate it. But I’m not going anywhere before it’s seen to.” He hitched his chin at the trunk, still worn by his comrade.
“Then let’s see to it,” Layanna said.
“I’ll help you put it on.”
Yaslen aided the other R’loth in shrugging off the Device, then turned to hold it for Layanna. The fading, dying god-things watched on glumly, jumping at the sounds of combat. The very air smelled of fear, bitter and cloying.
Yaslen pulled the straps wide, to allow Layanna to slip her arms through—
His head exploded. For a moment he still stood, blood pumping from his shattered skull. Slowly his body dropped to the ground, legs still twitching. Blood and brains sprayed across the floor. The Device fell with him.
Sheridan emerged from a rear doorway clutching a smoking gun. It gleamed, long and black, longer than a normal pistol and strangely bulky. It was an extradimensional weapon, like the one Avery had been carrying on his journey here. In fact, it might have been his, taken from his room.
Sheridan, her eyes flinty and her steps like the cracks of doom, marched into the chamber, blue smoke drifting around her.
“I’ll take that,” she said, indicating the Device.
Janx started to level his gun at her, but she swung her arm, fast as a snake, and her own gun thundered first.
Hildra was faster. She threw herself between Janx and the bullet just as a rose bloomed on her chest.
She wilted to the floor, and Janx sank to his knees over her. The gun clattered beside him. Sheridan fired again, and the weapon spun into the shadows.
Avery started toward Hildra, but the motion alerted Sheridan, and she tracked him with her gun. He stopped dead.
“Doctor,” she said.
A boom shook the chamber, and he glared at her. “You did this,” he said. “I don’t know how, but you did it.”
“You should never have left me with a live current.”
“A current ...” The bulb, he realized. She meant the light bulb in her room.
“The twitch of one wire against another, in a certain code, sent the appropriate message, and here we are.” Sheridan indicated the Device. “Now help me strap it on.”
“Never.”
“Not even to save your daughter?”
He blinked. Began to step forward, to help her. With a great effort of will he held himself back. “No,” he said. “I can’t.”
Defiantly, he sank to his knees beside Janx, who was cradling Hildra in his massive arms. Hildebrand chittered mournfully and tugged at his mistress’s sleeve. To Avery’s surprise, Hildra still breathed. Blood burst from her lips with every breath, and a horrible wheezing sound issued from the puncture on her upper right chest. Blood bubbled with every inhalation. Her eyes fluttered and she spasmed in semi-consciousness.
Another boom shook the chamber, louder than before, and everyone glanced to the front doorway, expecting Octunggen troopers or perhaps one of their pet monstrosities to burst through the door. None did, but it was only a matter of time.
“Then I’ll have to do it myself,” Sheridan said.
She approached the Device, gun trained on Layanna, who was quite close to it. With Sheridan’s prodding, Layanna retreated, but her eyes never left Sheridan’s. The other members of the Black Sect, even the sickliest ones, had converged i
n a ring among the machinery, visibly itching to leap on Sheridan. She constantly swiveled her gun from one to another, inviting anyone who dared to take the first bullet.
They acted when she bent to heft up the box. As soon as she slung it around her shoulders, one of the Black Secters brought over its other-self and surged toward her, a mass of thrusting pseudopods and tentacles. She snapped a buckle, took a step back, and fired. The bullet punched right though the phantasmagorical substance of the god-thing’s other-self and into the very human chest of the man inside. Instantly his amoeba sac dissolved. He collapsed dead to the floor in a slick of steaming slime.
As soon as he had moved against her, three others acted. A wall of squirming, thumping tentacles and weird limbs surged at Sheridan. Face taught, she dodged a pseudopod, stepped over a lashing tentacle, and fired her gun—again—and again—as she backed away. One fell, then another.
She slipped out the rear doorway and was gone. Three bodies slumped against it.
“Damn,” said Avery.
“That bitch!” snarled Janx. Then, looking down at Hildra in his arms. “Is there anything you can do, Doc?”
“I’ll do everything in my power,” Avery promised him.
Meanwhile Layanna was consulting with the people of the Black Sect.
“You must go after her,” one said. “Now.”
“Yes, of course,” Layanna said. “And you?”
“We will hold them off.” It had been an attractive brunette who’d spoken, although speech was difficult for her, as over half her lips were blue glass. She moved to a certain machine, and Avery knew this was the extradimensional bomb that was meant to destroy the Device in case of seizure. It had not prevented Sheridan’s theft, which had been utterly unexpected and impossible to prepare for, but it could still cause damage to the attackers.