by Galen Wolf
"It's streaming in now. Let me see what we got."
Gaijann and Severan walked across to Atorkh and watched as he processed the data. Mehefin stood nearby. The rest walked ahead down the corridor of eternal babbling screens.
Atorkh spoke. "Yes. Well, you know I said they were meeting someone here. Someone they call The Professor. Well they didn't meet him. They fucked up their mission."
"Typical lizards really," Gaijann said. "Dumbasses."
"So at about the time we entered, according to the time stamp on these messages, they were panicking, now they are trying to make contact with the Professor to regroup."
"And have they?" asked Severan.
"Don't think so yet."
"Anything else?"
Atorkh nodded. He paused theatrically before he told them.
Gaijann rolled his eyes in exasperation.
Severan sighed. "And it is?"
"They've broken through the door. They're coming this way."
Gaijann frowned.
Severan flashed him a look. "It should have lasted forever, if you sealed it properly."
Gaijann shrugged. "As I said, if I'd sealed it that well, we would never get out on the way back. And I want to get out, even if you don't care." He fixed the giant with his malachite eyes.
Severan's shook his head in irritation. "How fast are they moving, Atorkh?"
"Pretty cautiously. There seems to be some kind of firefight up there."
"Probably the worms have regenerated." Severan patted Atorkh on his shoulder. "You did well cracking those codes." Then he started walking again while the boy beamed.
Severan caught up with the Count and the others who stood waiting, and began to brief them. Atorkh hurried up behind Severan. Gaijann was hanging back, lost in his own thoughts.
"But who's this Professor?" Torina stared at Atorkh.
"Dunno. Maybe another rich guy who likes knowledge like our Count."
"There must be something very special in here for them all to be after it."
"And all at the same time too," Gaijann said.
The Count raised his eyebrows. "Only seventeen hours left before the dark."
Severan nodded. At that, they moved off.
Gaijann watched as the Count whispered something to Mehefin, though he couldn't hear what they said.
The party came to another deep shaft with stairs running round and down. With only the slightest pause, they started to descend it without any orders from Severan. The giant was in the middle now, walking alongside Mehefin. Gaijann saw them talking. He looked back at the Count who was watching intently as Mehefin chatted with Severan. He felt a barb of suspicion as he saw the slender blonde girl laughing with the giant and thought that it took great craft to make something look as natural as that. He frowned. He couldn't remember Severan laughing like that with anyone, at least not with anyone who wasn't his Oriel. Gaijann glanced back and caught a thin little smirk on the Count's face. Gaijann knew they were up to something. Then he saw Severan's smiling face and told himself to be glad that the giant could grab some happiness - some little break from the sorrow and obsession that had filled him since the day the Ghazzali came.
As they went down, Gaijann saw Atorkh was dividing his attention between watching where he was putting his feet and looking at his screen. Suddenly the youth shouted up that the Kissag were being held back by the worms and they had only made it a small way into the library. "But they are calling down reinforcements."
"Wait till they meet the Alu," Torina said.
"You got the neural net working?" Gaijann asked.
"No. There's something blocking it."
Gaijann sighed and kept stepping down. He thought that even though the Kissag were now advancing into the library above them, Severan seemed to have lost some of the frantic hurry he had on first entering.
Torina said she was tired and instead of telling her to move faster, Severan said they could stop to rest. He could do with being a bit more mellow, thought Gaijann, but not this mellow.
They found a room decorated by strange symbols that rippled like water and they sat down where they could. Gaijann sidled up to Morah, who was standing beside the walls running her hands over the symbols. Gaijann copied her, running his palms over the images and his mind was instantly filled with pictures of ice and a feeling of the emptiness of deep space. Suddenly, without realizing how, he knew of the lonely paths of comets - balls of rock and gas that spent thousands of years in deep space, far away from any star before looping on their orbit towards the centre of solar systems, and celebrating with a flaring tail that caught the solar wind reflecting spectrums of light into the eyes of living things.
"Wow!"
Morah said, "What's a wow?"
"The way when you touch these symbols it puts pictures and feeling in your head."
"I didn't think you had any artistic appreciation in you."
He stared at her. "You'd be surprised what I've got in me."
"Oh really? You have an artistic soul then?" She smiled.
"Very much so."
"I look forward to eating it."
"Not if I eat yours first." He winked. "Though that's not the first part of you I'd eat."
She reached over and stroked his face with her long taloned fingers. She was gazing at him almost affectionately, her red and white eyes taking in his smooth black face. "You amuse me Gaijann. I never thought you would, but you do."
"I guess that's good then?"
She nodded. "I guess so. But it doesn't mean I wouldn't kill you if I had to."
Away from them, Severan sat alone with Mehefin.
"Any less sad?" she said.
"I'll live."
"Do you want one of these?" she handed him a box of rose-perfumed candies. She had her backpack open on her knee and Severan laughed out loud, as he saw the fripperies it contained. "I could never imagine myself needing things you have there."
She smiled back. "But to us women things that smell and look nice are essential!"
He shrugged. "I don't know why you burden yourselves with the extra weight. After all you have to carry it all this way." Then his brow furrowed as if he was remembering. She put his hand on his shoulder.
Then he looked lost in thought. "But these things make the world kinder and look and smell better. Oriel used to put bowls of dried and scented fruits in our bedroom. It seemed a pointless extravagance to me then."
She held a candy out to him.
"I don't really have a sweet tooth."
"I made them myself. They start off tasting of flowers, then get very spicy then sweet then they taste like lemons. They're like fireworks going off in your mouth."
He laughed. "Sounds exotic."
"Try it," she thrust the bon-bon at him. He cocked his huge head, the blond hair like a lion's mane, examining her face. Then he took the candy. "I will. Thank you."
She laughed with him as he placed it in his mouth. Then he nodded and grinned. "Yes, it's good. You have talent."
Her face beamed. "I'm pleased you liked it."
He sat a while looking at her, his hard warrior's face softening. Her rainbow eyes were open and they seemed full of innocence. He frowned. "You know, I've never looked at another woman since my wife died."
"Really?"
"Really."
"And I bet you must have had lots of offers, being such a handsome man."
Severan was used to the ways of war but he had never known how to flirt. "That's very kind of you to say," he said finally.
"It's true."
"You're very beautiful of course."
"Thank you kind sir," she beamed again. Then she paused. "Do you think this place will change us?"
"Change us? I hadn't thought. I don't think so. I don't change."
"Maybe you will. Maybe you need to."
The comment hung between them. Then, as if she found the silence awkward she said, "This is a very strange place. I just get a feeling that we won't be the same after we
leave here."
He looked down. "Leave here. Yes."
She said quietly. "I think you've wanted to die for a long time."
He looked at her, as if surprised that someone would take so much interest in him. He frowned. "I did," he said. "That's all I wanted for so long."
"So, why didn't you just kill yourself?" She looked at him intently, like she really wanted to know the answer.
He shrugged. "It's against my religion."
"That's a pity."
"You disapprove of religion?"
"No," she said. "I believe that the gods, those sublime intelligences that inhabit the realms between waking and dreams, are fickle and childish. So from a young age, I decided that I'd do what I want; I don't want gods that interfere with my choices."
"My god doesn't interfere. That's why I like him."
She reached and tapped the medallion on his chest. "You follow the Blind God."
"The Blind God. Yes. He lives but he doesn't know he lives. His will creates universes but he doesn't know he wills it." He smiled without humor.
"That's not much of a god."
"On the contrary, he is the most powerful god. He is Fate."
"So, you can't kill yourself, but he can kill you, if that's his will?"
"He has no will."
"Well if that's the way it turns out." She put her hand on his arm and he let it rest there. "I'm just trying to understand," she said.
He looked at her kindly. "You understood."
"So you take these suicide missions?"
"I don't choose suicide. And you're here with me. So if it's suicide for me, you'll most likely die too."
"I trust you to save me."
"That's a big responsibility. I'm not sure if I want it."
"You have it anyway." She turned and pointed at his companions. "And to save them. They'd be lost without you." Torina was watching them talk and her eyes were moist. She glanced away when she saw Severan smile at her. Atorkh was engaging her in conversation, but she kept her head down, a look on her face that suggested she was only pretending to listen.
Gaijann turned from the luminous symbols and noticed Torina's bowed head. He darted a look at Mehefin's hand on Severan's arm and glanced back at Torina. He glimpsed her face and then saw her stealing looks at Mehefin. He knew then that Torina's heart was full of jealousy and hate for Mehefin - that beautiful stranger who had come in, and with all her privilege and charm, begun to do what Torina never could - to steal Severan's heart. And Gaijann guessed that Severan was falling for Mehefin, even if the giant did not know it yet. His leader was drawn to her because for the first time since his wife died, hope was being offered to him - a key that would let him live again.
It seemed to Gaijann that Mehefin also saw Torina's tears but the blonde aristocrat turned back to Severan. With his enhanced sonics on the suit, he heard her say, "You have the responsibility for keeping your friends alive too."
Severn nodded. "Your father and yourself of course. That's why you're paying me. And Torina and Atorkh. They're still children; so yes. I would give my life to protect theirs. Just as if I were their father." He looked at his old friend, who smiled back at him. "But Gaijann - I don't think Gaijann can die: I've seen him in so many tight corners that he should by rights be dead already. If cats have nine lives, then Gaijann must have ninety-nine."
"What about Morah?" Morah and Gaijann still stood by the symbols on the wall. Morah seemed enthralled, trying different ones; going on different journeys through the wastes of space.
"Morah," Severan said, speaking her name as if it were salt in his mouth. "Morah can look after herself."
Mehefin said, "Anyway, I'm glad you don't want to so much now."
"Want to what?"
"Die."
He grunted. "Time to go," and he stood.
"I wanted to ask you about your hand and eye."
He looked down at her. "You know no one has ever asked me such personal questions before."
She put her hand out, and he took it, helping her to her feet.
"I'm not no one Severan."
The Count stood glancing back the way they had come and then forward again. "We need to hurry. The planet is turning into the dark. Soon the Inchoatus will begin to rise."
"How many hours have we been in?" Gaijann asked.
Severan said, "About five."
"Plenty of time," Gaijann said.
"If we knew how far away our goal was," Torina's voice was emotional.
"Or even what it was," Atorkh said.
The Count said, "I know."
Gaijann scratched his chin. "I think we've been friends long enough now for you to tell us."
Torina turned and screamed.
Atorkh spun to peer into the half lit passages behind them. He took a step back and mumbled, "What the fuck are those?"
CHAPTER NINE: The Place Where Thoughts Thicken
Gaijann spun round. Coming towards him down the tunnel were figures made of quicksilver. They had the shape of men, but were glittering and metallic. Their limbs flowed like mercury and they held weapons. There was something about their outline and the weapons that reminded Gaijann of another time. He saw some also carried rippling banners and flags. The niggling familiarity bothered Gaijann like an itch he couldn't scratch.
Torina muttered, "The Queen protect us!"
"They've come from the Silver Pool," said the Count. "They must have."
"What was that pool called again? Dreams congealed or something?" Atorkh fiddled with his visor, pulling it down finally.
"The Place Where Thoughts Thicken," Gaijann drew his dagger from its scabbard, its plasma blade intense and electric blue.
Severan readied his assault rifle. The others followed suite, arming themselves. The Count took out his pistol and Mehefin went to stand behind him.
"What are they?" Torina asked.
"They're Ghazzali fanatics," Severan's voice had the echo of hate and fear.
And Gaijann realized why they were familiar. "No, they're not; they're thought images of Ghazzali - the pool has taken them from your brain, Severan."
Severan pressed his cheek against his rifle and sighted the oncoming creatures. "I don't care where they came from. They're going back."
The bullets hit the silver men and sent sheets of mercury splashing off them. Atorkh deployed his drones to the front line. There were three of them; the bee, the dragonfly, and the humming bird. They flew up above head height, their lights winking, and their weapons whining as they readied them. The drones fired off energy charges, ionizing beams that superheated the mercury. The assault was sending beads of mercury flying through the air, vaporized into clouds. Gaijann knew the mercenaries had all been immunized against heavy mental poisoning, but he didn't know about the Count or Mehefin. If they breathed the vapor in, it could kill them quicker than a sword or bullet. Just as a precaution, he heard Severan yell, "Masks and visors."
The mercenaries complied and Gaijann waved for the Count and Mehefin to back away from the conflict. The silver creatures faltered and fell as their legs were blown away, but reformed, staggered to their feet on new limbs, and were not halted. Severan dropped his rifle and it clattered to the stone floor. He began to use his eye, focusing on them one at a time as they came forward. He locked his eye into their heads and the red orb acquired and superheated the mercury, sending it fizzing off in clouds of deadly steam. The front creatures melted into clouds of metallic mist, but the rest kept coming and the ones that had fallen soon reformed.
"This vapor is poisonous," Atorkh said. "Switch on your suit's oxygen."
Gaijann snapped round. "Aren't you immunized Atorkh? You Torina?"
Both shook their heads.
"Use suit air supplies then." Gaijann looked desperately at his boss. "Severan, try to stop thinking of them - stop thinking of the Ghazzali!"
Severan stood beside him - his eye glowing infernally. "I can't. I can never stop thinking of those creatures."
"T
hen we're going to have to run. Pull back your drones Atorkh."
Atorkh nodded and swiped his command screen. The bee, the dragonfly and the humming bird began to pull back.
"I can help," Morah said. Gaijann turned to see that from nowhere, she had summoned a creature of darkness. It was difficult to make out what it was. All he could see was a whirlwind of obscurity and from within the murk, a pair of eyes glowed yellow as sulfur.
"Do what you can," Severan spat.
Morah spoke words of power and the demon of broiling darkness went forward to engage the phantasms of silver. Where they met there was a howling so great that Gaijann clapped his hands over his ears. It was a whistling sound like steam escaping from a ruptured pipe, tormented as a tortured soul in hell. Chaos and confusion reigned so that no one could see what was going on. And then there was silence. The advance of the silver creatures had been stopped.
"What?" Gaijann's eyes were wide in wonder.
Morah shrugged. "My summoning is made of negative energy. Similar to the tide of inchoatus that fills this place at night."
"I don't get it."
"During the day, silver reigns here. It is the energy of coagulation - of creation from chaos. The Universe goes from building complexity to breaking it down - from complexity to entropy; from Law to Chaos. At night, darkness reigns here - the inchoatus is the cleansing matter of chaos. So what Law has built during the day, Chaos breaks down at night. And so it cycles forever. This Library is the battleground between the Gods of Law and the Gods of Chaos. My creature of Chaos will hold off these creatures of Law, but not for long. Above us, it is day and Law still rules as long as the planet's face is turned towards its sun."
Gaijann grinned. "So we still better run?"
"I think that would be wise."
"Deeper," Severan said. "We must go deeper." He twisted the medallion of the Blind God between the fingers of his human hand.
Atorkh pulled his beard. "So during the light, the Silver creatures will kill us? And at night, the place fills up with this dark inchoatus?
"And that'll kill us too." Torina added.
"That's right," Morah showed her teeth in a sardonic grin.
Atorkh listened to the chatter of his machines. "Yeah, and the Kissag have found the first shaft and are coming down."