by A A Warren
He shrugged. “I just do.”
She nodded. “Alright. Well, we’d better get—”
She swayed and staggered forward a few steps, clutching her abdomen.
Talon grabbed her, and supported her weight. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
She nodded, pushing him away. “I’m fine, just a little dizzy from the crash. Must have hit my—”
A fit of coughing interrupted her words. She fell to her knees. She looked up, her eyes red and watering. Her arm rose and pointed at Talon’s chest.
He glanced down… the tattoo that snaked across his chest was glowing, pulsing. The bright green light cast a sickly glow over Avra’s pale skin.
The shard will protect you…
He knelt down beside her. He threw her arm over his shoulder, and stood, dragging her to her feet. Another fit of coughing wracked her body, and he could feel her chest spasming against his side.
“The atmosphere must be poisonous!” he snapped as he dragged her across the rocky soil, back toward the ramp. “The shard is protecting me, but you can’t stay out here. You’ll die!”
Her eyes fluttered, then rolled back into her head. Her head lolled forward, and she went limp in his arms.
Gritting his teeth, Talon heaved her body up on to the ramp. He slammed his fist into the control panel on the side of the ship. With a loud hiss, the ramp began to close.
Come on… Faster damn it!
Finally, the ramp thunked to a close. The airlock hissed as it vented the contaminated air out of the ship. Talon peered through the ramp's porthole, watching for any sign of movement. All he could see were the blinking emergency lights inside the ship. He pressed the comm button on the ramp's control panel.
“Avra? Avra, are you okay?”
There was no answer. Nothing moved across the transparent circle.
Talon clenched his fist. “Dammit Avra, answer me!”
Suddenly, a hand slapped against the porthole. Avra staggered to her feet. Her eyes were clear and bright, and some color had returned to her face. The intercom crackled to life.
“I’m fine.” She was panting, gasping for breath, but her voice sounded stronger.
Talon laughed. “Iberon’s harem! You gave me a scare.”
She pounded the glass. “I don’t want to stay here, I want to fight with you! I can find an environmental suit, I can—”
“It’s too dangerous, and a suit will slow you down. There are other ways to fight. You said the portal drive is damaged. Can you fix it?”
She tucked a loose strand of fiery hair into her headband, as she thought for a moment. “I'll give it a shot. But I don’t know if we can open a star-path here. And even if we could, where would it take us?”
Talon pressed his fingers to the glass. “One thing at a time. Do what you can. I’ll be back soon.”
He turned and walked away from the ship.
“Talon!” her voice cracked over the speaker behind. He looked back at the tiny window. “You said you’d tell me your name. That was the deal.”
“I said I’d tell you when this is over.” Glancing over his shoulder, he eyed the dark, mangled rock formations in the distance.
Then he looked back at Avra. Her face pressed up against the circle of glass that separated them. He grinned. “It’s not over yet.”
He resumed his trek away from the ship. Shards of rock crumbled under the fall of his heavy boots. The deep, crimson shadows of the canyon engulfed him, and he disappeared from view.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Talon lost track of how long he’d been walking. There was no sun overhead. No change in the hellish crimson light that fell from the sky, nor the shadows that cloaked the depths of the canyon. No moon, no stars… Nothing at all to gauge the passage of time.
The alien terrain grew more rugged as he drew closer to the source of the beam. Soon he was scrambling across massive boulders, and pulling himself up over jutting ledges of splintering rock. The muscles in his back and shoulders throbbed, and shards of rocks slashed his calloused palms. Sweat and blood streaked through his matted hair.
Finally, he stood before the craggy rock tower. Looking up, he saw the red light, blazing into the sky. Rippling clouds, a swirling red vortex, filled the heavens. The monstrous tentacles, unthinkable in size and scope, writhed in the blackness of space beyond the clouds. Vendaru had further eroded… half the planet was torn away, and the plume of venting atmosphere had grown larger, brighter.
Talon lowered his gaze and examined the sheer wall before him. A passageway led deep into the rocks, and he could make out a narrow set of steps, ascending up into the twisted innards of the plateau. A triangular entrance framed the tight passageway. It was flanked on either side by statues of No’varran warriors. The towering edifices stood over thirty meters in height, and were carved into the rock walls of the plateau.
He took a moment to catch his breath, then walked toward the entrance. When he was a few meters away, he paused… He could see a dim, flickering light, descending from the darkness within the rocks. A blue glow cast shifting shadows across the rocky stairs, moving closer and closer to him. He shifted his belt, sliding his scimitar to his right side.
A figure stepped into view. It was a woman, clothed in only a jeweled harness and an embroidered trail of silk. Her cobalt hair trailed behind her in the hot breeze, and her eyes glowed with an inner fire.
“Salena!” Talon shouted.
He rushed towards her. She laughed, and wrapped her lavender arms around him. “I told you we would see each other again, my warrior.”
He hugged her back. “I was worried… when Sartarus took you—”
“Sartarus is a fool,” she whispered into his ear. “He does not realize your strength, the power of your destiny. Did you bring it?”
Talon looked down into her eyes. Her glowing stare was hypnotic, the scent of her hair intoxicating. His arms fell limp to his sides.
“Bring what? I don’t understand.”
“The shard,” she hissed, her fingers dancing across the muscles of his back. “You must have the shard of R’Kur!”
He shook his head. “I held it in my hands, but it burned… I don’t know what happened. It melted away, and disappeared. When I woke up, it was gone.”
Her lips curled into a smile. Then her lips nuzzled his neck. “No, my warrior. It is here. Only you could bring it. Only you could contain its power. The shard is within you…” Her probing fingers slid across his waist, and moved up his chest. Her stare burned even brighter, and her lips parted. “I feel it… I can feel it inside you!” She threw back her head. “Such power! Give it to me, my warrior! Give me what I—Urgghhh!”
Her eyes bulged open, and a gurgle of pain escaped her lips. She glanced down… One of Talon’s cryocite blades pierced her stomach, buried to the hilt. Talon shoved the blade deeper. She gasped again, as he twisted it in her flesh. His face glowered with rage, and his crimson eye reflected her fading stare. She thrashed and struggled in his arms, but he clamped an iron fist on her shoulder, preventing her from pulling away.
“You call yourself a god?” he snarled. “I have claimed one hundred victories in the arena. Did you think I would not know how to spot a trap? You can mimic her form, but you can’t imitate the bond we share.”
She stopped struggling. “Does this fantasy not please you?” Her voice was no longer that of Salena. The sound of her words held no human intonation, no warmth or emotion of any kind. They seemed to echo and warp around him, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.
“Perhaps you would find another form more pleasing?” Her body rippled and shifted, the flesh rearranging itself into a new form… he found himself staring into Avra’s emerald gaze. “Tell me your name, Talon… your true name…”
Another rippling wave ran through the figure before him. She became an older woman, draped in a white silk robe and jeweled battle harness. Her face was stern but kind. She reached up and caressed his cheek. “I can give
her back to you, Talon. I can replace all the love you lost. I can give you anything you desire.”
It was the woman he had seen in his dreams, the woman screaming his name as the rocks buried his life pod.
Mother…
With a cry of rage, Talon dragged the blade up, tearing open the figure’s torso. He pushed her back and she stumbled away from him. She fell to the ground with a thud. No blood spilled from her wound. Her head turned, and she regarded his panting body with a cold, impassive stare, all warmth vanished from her unblinking eyes.
“Why do you refuse me? I offer you a paradise. I can you give you anything. Anyone. Here, you can be free.”
“You offer nothing I want, god.” Talon spat out the words, as he wiped the blade against his leg. It was his habit to keep his weapons clean, but no gore stained the blade… it was as if it had slashed through thin air, rather than flesh and blood. “I see the emptiness of your illusions. This place is your cage… it won’t be mine.”
“As you wish, warrior. But know this. I have enthralled life in this galaxy for countless eons. And I will do so long after your flesh has withered to dust. Countless souls have succumbed to my power. Their numbers are legion. And they do not take kindly to those who disturb their eternal dreams.”
The woman’s flesh shriveled and collapsed. Her eyes sank into her skull, and a bubbling black slime erupted from their empty sockets. The same liquid fountained from her gaping mouth, and the dark gash in her torso. Puddles of the thick, oily fluid pooled around her corpse. Steam and smoke rose from the ground, as the ooze burned into the earth.
A tremor ran through the ground. Talon took a step back. The sand and rocks trembled beneath his feet. A thunder-crack split the air, and a fissure tore through the ground. Smoke and mist poured from the gorge, clouding his vision.
Another crack sounded behind him. The tremors increased, and the earth heaved and shook. As he struggled to maintain his balance, he felt something wet and cold grab his ankle. Glancing down, he saw a clawed hand, reaching up from another dark crack in the ground. The creature’s flesh was lumpy and gray, and coated with glistening slime. Its long, tendril-like fingers wrapped around his leg, pulling him towards the fissure.
Bellowing a cry of rage, he slashed with his sword, lopping off the hand at the wrist. Glowing green fluid spurted from the stump of its arm, and a shriek of pain rose up from the shadows. He stepped away from the shearing rocks, as the thing pulled itself out of the fissure with its remaining hand. It scrambled over the edge, and lumbered towards him.
Talon continued backing way, crouching low to maintain his balance as the earth shook and rocked around him. The creature before him could have been human, once. Its bulbous, pod-like head perched atop a narrow stalk of a neck. Lanky muscles quivered in its squat, barrel chest, and its long, gnarled arms and legs scrabbled across the dust. It loped towards him on all fours, but there was still something faintly human about its gait.
Talon raised his blade, as the veined skin of the thing’s spherical head peeled back. Dripping strands of mucus and slime parted, revealing a single, cloudy eye. The glistening orb took up the creature’s entire head, and the iris around its thick, dark pupil was a pale, milky red.
The creature threw back its head and wailed, though Talon saw no mouth that could produce such a sound. Then it charged toward him, its limbs pounding the ground like an angry gorilla.
Talon drew his other blade, and sidestepped the beast’s charge. He ducked under the swing of the thing’s long, thin arm, and slashed across its stomach. A torrent of phosphorus blood stained the ground beneath it as it passed.
The beast skidded past him. He swung around, stabbing his second blade into the thing’s back. He felt flesh tear, and heard bones crack beneath the force of his blow. The creature fell, sprawling into the dirt. It thrashed and wailed like a wounded animal, and its high-pitched screams felt like hot needles lancing into Talon’s ears.
Another crevice split open in the rocks behind them. As the creature leapt to its feet, Talon surged forward, slashing left and right with his twin swords. The creature threw up its arms, struggling to block the curtain of steel before it. It took a step back… then another. Talon continued his relentless charge.
The beast stopped, and looked down with its single massive eye… its clawed foot perched on the edge of the dark gorge. It snapped its head back towards Talon, and raked its claws through the air.
Talon ducked under the swing and charged forward. He pivoted, smashing his shoulder into the thing’s withered, bony flesh with all his strength. The momentum of his attack shoved the creature back over the edge of the fissure. Its limbs flailed as it plunged into the darkness, and its final, mournful howl faded into a distant echo.
Panting for breath, Talon saw movement to his right. He glanced over his shoulder, and saw more of the things, crawling up from the spiderweb of cracks in the earth.
“The dreamers of Daizon,” he muttered. “So this is what happens to them.”
He turned and forced his aching legs to run. He leapt across another crack that split the rocks in his path. Ahead of him he could see the statues, and more stairs carved into the rock plateau. A crimson glow lit up the winding path, emanating from the deep crevices in the rock walls. Shards of rock rained down across the triangle shaped entrance, as the earth continued to rumble and shake.
Through the smoke and haze that billowed from the fissures, he saw glimpses of movement, more creatures, pouncing from the shadows. Their claws tapped against the ground as they scurried behind him, following his frantic charge. The sounds grew louder… More beasts had joined the fray. A pack of the horrific dreaming thralls nipped at his heels.
Throwing his sword to the ground, he drew his pulse pistol. Risking a quick glance over his shoulder, he opened fire, sending a barrage of pulse bolts into the horde that thundered after him. The wild shots struck one of the creatures and it fell to the ground, rolling through the dust and rocks. He fired again, dropping two more of his pursuers into the dirt.
Another gorge thundered open, tearing the earth before him in two. He leapt over it and darted left, moving closer to the plateau. He sprayed the air with weapon fire, firing left and right as more creatures leapt into his path. One by one he sent them flying to the ground, cut down by the glowing bolts of his pistol.
The entrance to the stairs lay only a few meters way. His eyes narrowed… He saw movement within the shadowy interior. Another creature, larger than the others, pounced from the stairwell. Talon raised the pistol and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. Cursing, he glanced down at the energy meter on the gun… the power cell was empty. He dropped the useless weapon in the dirt, and drew his remaining sword.
The beast slammed its clawed fists into the ground, and roared, blocking the stairs with its long, spindly limbs. Talon spun the sword in his hand. Reaching back with his arm, he hurled the shimmering blade through the air.
The sword whistled as it spun toward the creature. The beast roared, and raised its arms up over its head, preparing to slash down at Talon as he resumed running towards the entrance.
Before it could strike, the spinning sword buried itself in the beast’s chest. A fountain of glowing blood stained the sand in front of Talon’s feet. He raced through the muck, a grim smile on his lips. The creature coughed a spray of blood, then crashed forward to the ground. Without stopping, Talon leapt up and over the warm corpse. As his feet pounded toward the stairs, he heard the pounding thud of the other beasts on his tail, vaulting over their fallen brethren.
His feet leapt over sand and rock, and touched down on carved stone… he had made it to the steps. Whirling around, he drew his axe from his harness. The blade flared to life, bathing his face in a flickering orange glow.
A curtain of dust and smoke hung beyond the entrance… a creature burst through, and scrambled towards the stairs. Another followed… then another.
“Alright, dogs,” Talon snarled. “Who will come first
?”
A single beast leapt through the entrance. Talon swung the blazing axe. The powerful stroke sliced the thing’s head clean off. Its milky eye bounced against the stone floor with a wet thud, as more bodies piled into the dark, narrow corridor. Talon backed up the stairs, jabbing and slashing at the mass of glistening flesh below.
A sea of spindly limbs and hooked black claws reached out for him. The blade of the plasma axe hummed and whined as he swung it through the air. Every blow of it lopped off more limbs, and his flesh was soon streaked with splashes of green and crimson… the creatures’ blood, mixing with his own. He swung again, sending a plume of fluid splattering against the stone walls of the stairwell.
Another tremor shook the rock walls surrounding him. He squinted as dust and chips of rock pelted his face. He backed up a few more steps. A loud crack sounded from the wall on his right. Another fissure gaped in the rocks. A cloud of steam blasted forth, burning his skin and stinging his eyes. A huge crystal spire thrust out from the dark crevice, tearing through the rock walls like a spear thrown by the hand of a giant.
Talon stumbled back, barely avoiding the razor edges of the rocks as they sliced through the stairway. He grunted as he fell back and struck the stairs, gasping as the air shot from his lungs.
More debris fell from the darkness above, as the tiny passage shook and rumbled. He heard the wail of the creatures, the scraping of their claws as they squirmed under the crystal spire.
He threw up his axe, holding the shaft horizontal across his chest as another beast leapt towards him.
Its bony, tendril-like fingers wrapped around the hilt of the axe. Talon pushed up, holding the thing at bay. It wailed and thrashed, its single orb glaring down at him. The giant eye twitched left and right in its fleshy socket. The muscles in Talon’s shoulders and arms screamed in protest… the bar of the axe dropped as the creature put more weight on it. Its blood-stained claws skittered across the metal shaft, inches from his face.
Another tremor rocked the passageway. Talon heard the crack of splitting rocks, and a blast of steam stung the left side of his face. He turned his head and saw yet another spiderweb of cracks, racing down the stone wall. Gritting his teeth, he roared in fury and heaved the axe up, lifting the thrashing creature up into the air.