Dragon: Bridge & Sword: The Final War (Bridge & Sword Series Book 9)

by JC Andrijeski

  It only occurred to me after I’d done it that I maybe shouldn’t be sharing this, especially since I had no idea what it meant. I felt a swell of frustration at Revik at the thought, even as it occurred to me why I was being so open with Dalejem.

  I trusted him. Worse, I didn’t trust him because of anything I felt in my own light. I trusted him because Revik did.

  I trusted him because my husband told me I could.

  The realization angered me. It also brought a shiver of fear as it hit me that Revik’s views on Dalejem might be coloring mine too much. Moreover, Revik’s trust of the ex-Adhipan seer might be colored too much by Revik’s feelings about him.

  Revik wasn’t here. I couldn’t afford to rely on him anymore.

  Just then, Feigran bolted past the two of us.

  He ran, full-tilt down the cement stairs.

  I heard Dalejem grunt in the dark, jerked forward by the leash that still tied the two of them together. He stumbled, started to fall down the stairs and grabbed the railing after I grabbed for him. I felt him trying to activate the lock on the leash as he wrapped his hands around the pole, but Feigran’s light got in the way somehow––enough I felt a bolt of panic off Dalejem.

  I gripped Dalejem’s vest, fisting my hand around the thick material. He caught hold of my shoulder with the hand not gripping the railing.

  Feigran didn’t slow.

  Collars really were fucking useless on him.

  Worse, Feigran apparently had control over our headsets when he wanted to. Really, the whole idea that Feigran was our prisoner at all struck me as borderline delusional.

  Even as I thought it, I released Dalejem, feeling he had his balance back, and lunged after Feigran himself. I caught hold of the leash in the process, seeing it in the dark with my Elaerian light. It burned my hands as it ran out and I gasped, releasing it at once.

  I was about to use my telekinesis to knock Feigran out––

  When the leash abruptly stopped running on its own.

  Reaching out tentatively with my light, I kept my aleimi behind the shield as I looked for the other Elaerian.

  Luckily, I found him easily.

  He huddled by a metal door on the next landing down.

  Focusing my aleimi, I exhaled in exasperation. Even as I did, I got another snapshot with my light––again probably from Feigran himself. In it, I saw the light signatures of those broken seers in cages. Feigran was showing me they were somewhere on the other side of that door.

  Only then did I turn back towards Dalejem.

  I could see with my light that he now gripped the banister in both hands. Now he used that same railing to regain his balance––then to push himself back to his feet. I could feel him coming to the same conclusions about his headset and Feigran’s light as I had.

  Meaning, that Feigran must have released the leash-lock somehow.

  “Fuck,” he muttered in English.

  Once he’d straightened, he started taking the stairs two at a time, heading swiftly towards Feigran. I followed without speaking, noting that the organic leash retracted as we walked.

  Apparently Feigran had returned control over the mechanism back to Dalejem.

  When we reached the closed door, Feigran just watched us, huddled against it. I could see him pressing his ear to the metal, his palms and fingers caressing the smooth surface.

  “Feigran,” I said. “Calm down.”

  “They are there,” he muttered. “They are there, sister. They are unhappy… so unhappy.” Pain wafted off the seer’s light. I felt it create conflict in his aleimi, a multitude of reactions, some negative and some borderline aroused. “They hurt. We should go to them. We should go now, sister. Find them now.” Breathing harder, he whimpered.

  Again I felt that confused flicker off his light.

  Grimacing, I decided to ignore the parts of Feigran that felt titillated and focus on the parts of him still capable of compassion.

  “We’re going,” I told him, my voice soft. “We’ll help them, okay?” Hesitating, I added, “Anything we need to know before we do, brother? Do you feel others in there? Seers? People with guns? What should we be expecting?”

  There was a silence.

  Then Feigran shook his head, slow.

  Only him, he sent to me, so soft I barely heard it. He wants to come out. He wants it so badly, sister. He begs me for it. He begs me for you.

  Him? I thought back, equally soft. Who, brother? Realizing I knew the answer to that question, or I probably did, I frowned. Why would they have no guards? Where is everyone, Feigran? Where did they all go?

  Not time yet, Feigran sent back in a whisper. Too early.

  Too early for what?

  For the war. He looked at me through the dark. Not time for the real war yet. It’s too early.

  I felt a shiver go through my light.

  Thinking about Brooks, I frowned.

  So this is for a war? I sent to the muttering seer. This complex. It was built for a war, Feigran? Is that why it’s so big?

  “Not time,” he whispered aloud, fingers splayed on metal. “Too soon for the others. The brothers and sisters down here… they are from before. They are the old ones. Supposed to be dead now. Dead and gone. But he keeps them alive. He breathes… life. He breathes.” He looked at me. “He breathes and they live, sister.”

  Feigran fell silent, as if unable to think of more words.

  Listening to him, I felt that conflict in my light worsen.

  I tried again to decide what to do.

  I hadn’t actually expected to find Dragon down here, I realized. Clues, maybe. Something that might tell me where to look for him. I didn’t think he’d be down here, unguarded, left in a cage for gods-knew how long, like that boy, Nenzi, who’d once held a part of Revik’s light.

  Surrounded by––what? Genetic experiments left down here to die by Galaith?

  I’d nearly forgotten Dalejem, but now he spoke, his voice a murmur.

  “How soon, Feigran?” he said, quiet. “When will the others be coming here?”

  I felt Feigran startle, which made me think maybe he’d forgotten Dalejem, too. He took his head off the metal-paneled door and leaned close to both of us, speaking into Dalejem’s ear. I felt him clutch at Dalejem’s arm and flinched a little at the intensity of the contact.

  “Soon, brother,” Feigran said softly. “They will come soon. He will take them from the cities. He will take them out… not all, but the chosen. He will pull them all out, and then they will come here. They will all come here.”

  I stiffened, realizing Dalejem had picked up on something I’d missed.

  The compound was built by Shadow.

  This was for his people.

  All the protected cities, the quarantines, the paid lists of survivors, the glamour and decadence he’d allowed since C2-77 hit, the negotiations with organized crime––that was all bullshit, too.

  He was really going to do it.

  He was going to kill everyone he hadn’t already decided to save.

  A denser, more nameless fear swam over my light. I found myself looking around at the walls as it hit me we only had Feigran’s word that this place was empty. We could have tripped the alarms already and not even known.

  I felt Dalejem thinking about all of that, too.

  He stood close to me again, so I felt the confusion of emotions in his light. He’d come to the same conclusions I had, though. On the big things, at least.

  This was Shadow’s bunker. He’d had it built to protect his people, once he decided to pull the final trigger––whatever that ended up being.

  Nuclear war, probably.

  I couldn’t fathom the why, but then I’d never been able to, not when it came to the Dreng. I got the bare bones. A new world. Run their way, according to their rules, with no dissidents, no true free will. Humans and seers as virtual slaves. Shadow would control infrastructure and the social order, probably even some semblance of their perversion of religion––n
o doubt with them at the center of it all.

  Menlim would breed the humans who remained like cattle. The seers he allowed to live would act as light collectors for the Dreng, just like the Rooks had under the Pyramid.

  There would be a new Pyramid. A stronger one, with fewer on the outside.

  None, most likely, if the Dreng got their way.

  Feeding pools. Wires. More slavery.

  I felt Dalejem sigh, a purring, clicking kind of sound.

  Then he was pushing gently on Feigran’s hands and light, getting him to back off his person so he could descend the last few steps to the landing. I felt Feigran let go of Dalejem reluctantly. The clingy vibe I’d noticed in Feigran’s light grew more intense with both Dalejem and me.

  “Don’t make me go alone,” Feigran said, soft.

  “All right, brother,” Dalejem murmured. “We won’t. We will all go in together now, yes? We will find these beings who were left behind. We will help them.”

  Feigran nodded seriously.

  I could see him through the Barrier again, his light-formed eyes focused intently on both me and Dalejem in turns. I could tell he wanted to catch hold of Dalejem’s arm again, or any part of him, really, but he seemed to sense he’d been given a command.

  Dalejem moved to the door.

  “Pardon me, brother,” he said to Feigran courteously.

  I watched as Feigran slid out of his way.

  Again, I felt a pulse of arousal off him. That time, it was unmistakably aimed at Dalejem. I bit my lip, knowing my humor primarily came from nerves. Even so, Dalejem must have felt something because he gave me a hard look.

  “Not one fucking word,” he warned me, his eyes flickering towards Feigran. “I mean it.”

  Still fighting to hide my smile, I nodded.

  Grunting, Dalejem turned back towards the door.

  He tried the handle, jiggling it with a muscular hand. Locked. I felt him looking for the mechanism with his sight, probably trying to determine if it was an organic lock, something he could use his aleimi to open.

  It wasn’t. I could see the dead metal mechanism.

  In less than a second, Dalejem came to the same conclusion. Looking over his shoulder, I felt him focus back on me.

  “Sister?” he said, still polite. “If you would?”

  I frowned.

  Of course, I’d come in here thinking I would have to use my telekinesis at some point. It was the main reason I’d been fairly confident I could scout this place on my own, with just Feigran with me. Now that I’d admitted to myself who owned this bunker, that it belonged to Shadow, I found myself hesitating.

  I hadn’t forgotten what Shadow’s constructs tended to do to telekinetics who tried to use their powers without permission. The few times Revik tested his light against Shadow’s constructs hadn’t ended great for him––even though he’d once managed to turn that back around on Shadow, wresting control of the construct over New York.

  Dalejem must have felt my hesitation.

  “I don’t believe you’re at risk here,” he said, soft. “I don’t feel a construct like that here, and I’ve looked at the records in New York and Argentina extensively.” He hesitated, then added, “Further, I believe Revik was vulnerable to them in a way you are not. It is part of why Shadow fears you, I suspect.”

  Thinking about his words, I nodded.

  I agreed with him, for the most part.

  Still, it only reassured me a little.

  Dalejem shrugged. I saw that through the Barrier, too.

  “We could come back,” he said, his voice still low. “I would be very comfortable with us coming back with a larger force, sister… with a real military plan.” At my silence, he added, “We breached it. We know it is real. What could be the harm in coming back with more than simply the two of us? The additional lights would give us more insight into this place, if nothing else.”

  I felt him thinking about the fact that we hadn’t been able to feel the compound from aboveground. I felt him wonder just how much our light relied on Feigran’s even now, and realized that fact hadn’t escaped him, either.

  I knew as well as Dalejem there had to be some kind of construct here––or something that blocked our light. A door, thick or not, wouldn’t have made any kind of difference. Physical distance meant nothing in the Barrier.

  Well, almost nothing. At these distances it meant very little.

  Whatever blocked us, there was a good chance that, of the three of us, only Feigran had a way to circumvent it.

  I felt Dalejem agree with me.

  I also felt his misgivings about our ability to come back here.

  Like me, he had a sneaking suspicion this complex wouldn’t be so easy to breach the second time. Like me, he had absolutely nothing to base that on. Zip.

  It was just a feeling. But it felt true. To me, too.

  Even as I thought it, Feigran shook his head.

  “No,” he said, his voice a loud whisper. “No! We cannot come back! We cannot. One time. One time only. The door closes. The door closes, sister!” He made a slicing gesture with one hand, raising his voice. “Bang! Bang! Bang! It closes––”

  When Dalejem caught his arm, using his aleimi to try and calm his light, Feigran’s voice dropped to a softer whimper.

  “It closes,” he breathed. “It closes. We cannot come back. Now or never! Put up or shut up!”

  I heard Dalejem let out an involuntary snort.

  He didn’t argue with Feigran. Instead I felt his light focus back on mine.

  Feeling the question there, I sighed.

  “I agree,” I said simply. “We can’t come back. I don’t know why. But we can’t.”

  Reluctance whispered off Dalejem’s light.

  Even so, I felt him agree.

  “Fine,” he said, exhaling. “Then perhaps you could open the door for us, sister? If we’re going to do this, I’d prefer we did it quickly.”

  Biting the inside of my cheek, I nodded.

  Taking a jerking step closer, I put my own hand on the door. I didn’t touch the handle, but placed my bare palm and fingers on the metal above where the handle sat. Now that I was closer, I could feel the barest whisper of life in that metal.

  Not shielded, exactly, but maybe––asleep.

  But how was that possible?

  “I don’t know,” Dalejem said, clicking softly as he shook his head. “I really don’t.”

  “Take imprints,” I told him quietly. “As many as you can.”

  My voice sounded more decisive than I felt.

  My light felt significantly more focused, too. Still, if Feigran was right, we needed to collect as much intel about this place as we possibly could. We wouldn’t get a second chance.

  Even as I thought it, I triggered the telekinesis.

  I did it softly, only using the bare minimum I needed to invade the lock mechanism. Splitting my consciousness, I focused a lesser part of my light on the bolt I could feel embedded in the stone wall. I focused the rest on the dormant organic.

  If I set off an alarm in here, I wanted to know. Right away.

  My light didn’t wake it up, thanks be the gods of the white sun.

  Once I had my higher structures in that wall, I discovered the stone wall wasn’t really stone… but I couldn’t think about that yet, either.

  I took a snapshot of it with my light.

  I told myself I’d do the same with any other organics I found, if not now then on our way out. Assuming we were able to get out at all.

  Pain rippled through me as I had a sudden flash of memory of Revik working with me, teaching me more advanced techniques for using the telekinesis on non-organics. He’d been so patient with me, so meticulous in breaking down the steps.

  He’d been so fucking good at it.

  Every time he demonstrated something, I couldn’t help getting turned on. Each and every damned time. We ended up having sex at the close of most of those lessons. Really fucking hot sex––usually more t
han once.

  Well, before Dubai we did.

  Gritting my teeth, I focused back on the panel.

  Skirting most of the sleeping organics I felt hibernating inside those walls, I pinpointed all of the contact points of the mechanism itself.

  Seconds later, I used the telekinesis to shove open the lock bar manually.

  I didn’t hear the click when one lock receded into the door, the other into the wall… but I felt it, somewhere in the higher areas of my light.

  Sending a soft ping to Dalejem, I twisted the handle––

  And opened the door.

  23

  EXPECTED

  THE LIGHTS IGNITED, the second I swung the door inward.

  They blinded me after so much time in the dark.

  I threw up an arm, wincing as my eyes adjusted. The change was so sudden I’d already clicked into a defensive reaction with my light, thickening the shield around the three of us and igniting a few more layers of the telekinesis.

  Behind me, I felt more than saw Dalejem aiming the gun to cover us.

  He slid sideways in the next few seconds, so that he could cover me from the other side, as well as Feigran, who walked in last, still hooked to Dalejem’s belt via the organic cord.

  Nothing greeted us but silence.

  Eventually I lowered my arm.

  I still squinted, but now as much from the pale green light of the telekinesis in my irises as from the light of the room, which now struck me as pretty moderate.

  Looking around, I felt another wave of disbelief.

  Whatever I’d expected to find on the other side of the door, it wasn’t this.

  No green, organic-tiled laboratory greeted us. I saw no cages or restraints, no stainless steel lab tables lurking by mirrored walls, no cloth-covered trays with horror movie instruments. There were no mysterious floor drains or smells of urine and sweat.

  The room wasn’t a room at all.

  Instead a long, wide, high-ceilinged thoroughfare stretched in front of us, lined on either side with full-sized storefronts.

  Main Street stretched before us, like something from a Norman Rockwell painting, only no one was home. It was completely deserted.

  My eyes slid down the length of the dome-ceilinged space, pausing on a few individual stores, noting their names, what I could glimpse through their windows.