Ascension (The Circle War Book 3)

by Matt King

  Aeris nodded. “I told you it looked like a Garoult soiling itself before battle.”

  The party erupted in heavy guffaws. Cerenus raised his cup. “To your former Revenant! Ever the lady.”

  The whole room cheered Aeris and then drank, finishing off their glasses of frille with smiles all around.

  “I barely heard it when it happened,” August said, turning to the nearest Horsemen. “You guys remember any of that?”

  The Horsemen checked among themselves before giving a noncommittal shrug.

  “Didn’t think so.”

  “August Dillon?” A woman walked toward him wearing a green gown that exposed the thick light gray skin of her arms. Her quasi-French accent was even thicker than Aeris’s. “My name is Beryl. Colliere asks to speak with you in private, if you have a moment.”

  She looked away from his eyes quickly when he turned to her. Most people did. Their unnatural red glow showed through his mask, making him look like a demon beneath the armor. “Why not? I’ve got all the time in the world. Cerenus’s next story involves a death-defying escape from an underwater prison.”

  “Surrounded by bloodthirsty sea creatures, as I recall.” Aeris joined him with Beryl. She stood at his side, looking directly into the lights of his eyes and not letting go.

  “Had enough of story time?” he asked.

  “I would not want you to go in there alone with Colliere. She’s as likely to throw you off the balcony as she is to thank you.”

  “It is good to see you again, Aeris,” Beryl said.

  Aeris gave a short bow. “Always happy to see you, Beryl. How is she?”

  “Well, you know Colliere. She hasn’t killed anyone since you left, so I’m afraid today’s battle may have only stoked her fires.”

  “Then we should see her Revenance before her blood boils over.”

  Beryl turned on her heel and led them toward the main hallway. Aeris looped her arm through August’s as they walked. He heard footsteps behind him. He didn’t need to turn around to know the Horsemen were in tow. They’d barely let him out of their sight since Earth.

  They stopped at a pair of doors at the end of the narrow corridor. Beryl grabbed the handles and then took her hands away. She looked embarrassed when she turned back. “I should probably ask you to keep your guards out here.”

  “They aren’t guards,” August said.

  “Your well-armed and clearly protective friends, then.”

  He eyed the closed door. “Should I be worried?”

  “Oh, no,” Beryl said with a sad smile. “Colliere simply is not in the best of moods. When she gets this way…”

  “They will stay out here,” Aeris said, addressing the Horsemen.

  The Horsemen looked to August. He nodded and thumbed toward the door. “If you hear any whistling bladed things flying around, come in shooting.”

  As soon as Beryl opened the door, something flew across the room and smashed against the wall, shattering and leaving behind a stain of water and broken flowers.

  “I hope we are not interrupting,” Aeris said.

  “They are imbeciles,” the Revenant replied. She motioned for Beryl to shut the door behind them.

  “And who are we mad at today, Colliere?”

  “Do not make fun of me, Aeris. I’ve no patience for your humor right now.”

  Aeris cut a look to August before raising her hands. “As you say. We are your guests, after all.”

  If the words were meant to calm her, it seemed to have worked. Colliere put her hands on the flared hips of her armor. Her quarterstaff hung on her belt. “Imbeciles,” she said again.

  August looked around the room. “Any imbeciles in particular?”

  “I speak of the Garoult, who else?”

  “What have they done this time?” Aeris asked.

  “I tried to save them as soon as I saw the army come through the portal. They were nearly to the Reventry, Aeris. I saw them.”

  “What happened?”

  Colliere looked around, picked up the last piece of decoration left in the room, and threw it against the wall. It shattered close to the stain of the first vase.

  “They ran off,” she said after a deep breath. “Including Pol, their diplomat. He refused to go in the Reventry and ran away.”

  “Have you found them?”

  “Two of them,” Colliere said. “Both dead. Pol and one of his men. The other two were last seen running toward the cove.”

  August and Aeris looked at each other. The Garoult weren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer, but he assumed they had enough sense to run away from a fight when they were unarmed. He was wrong, apparently.

  “You can’t be expected to make them stay safe if they won’t listen to reason,” Aeris said. “Surely you can make the Garoult see this. They have three eyes, after all.”

  For the first time ever, August watched a smile cross Colliere’s face. “Yes, well, it won’t be me who convinces them of that. I’m just as likely to call them out for their stupidity than speak well of their dead.”

  “Which is why you have Beryl,” Aeris replied.

  Colliere nodded. “I suppose I have her to thank for keeping our races from starting another war.”

  “You have more than that to thank me for,” Beryl said.

  “That will be all, Beryl.”

  “Are you sure?” She directed her question as much to Aeris as she did Colliere.

  Colliere crossed her arms. “She is sure.”

  Beryl left with a silent nod. When the doors shut behind her, Colliere looked down at the bench at the foot of her bed. “I would offer you both a drink, but I seem to have destroyed the bottle.”

  “I believe we’ve both had our fill of frille,” Aeris answered.

  “I am surprised Beryl let me go this long without thanking you. Both of you,” she said, nodding to August. “Had we not had your device, we would not have lived through this night.”

  “It was Ion’s idea,” August said.

  “Ion?”

  “You guys haven’t met. He’s this little glowing ball that sits in the ship’s basement and tells us where we’re headed next. Sends us messages through the navigation system like he’s the universe’s most expensive travel guide.”

  Colliere glanced to Aeris, confused. “He is a…champion?”

  “Supposedly,” August said.

  “He has yet to fight,” Aeris added. “So far, he has calculated that we haven’t needed him to join any battles.”

  Colliere looked like she’d swallowed a lemon. “He sounds useless.”

  “He’s a machine,” August said. “Most of them are.”

  “Do not let him fool you,” Aeris said. “August and Ion have become fast friends. August thinks Ion even spoke to him once.”

  “I wasn’t hearing things. I told you, he sounds like a Speak-N-Spell.”

  “No one knows what you mean by that.”

  “Speaking of friends,” Colliere said, sparing him the explanation, “your man Cerenus seems capable enough. I was under the impression the gods could not fight in this war.”

  “He’s not a god,” August said. “He’s a godclone. He loves himself so much, he took half his energy and made an exact copy, leaving his godliness, or whatever it is, hovering somewhere out there in space, as if we needed that guy in stereo.”

  “Clone or not, he killed many in that army. More than we Vontani did, anyway.”

  “Don’t let him hear you say that.”

  “What of the other gods?” she asked.

  August folded his arms across his chest. “We don’t talk to them, and we won’t. We don’t need to.”

  Aeris and Colliere exchanged a look.

  “I see.” Colliere cocked her head as she studied August. “It is so warm. Are you not uncomfortable wearing that mask all the time?”

  “I’m used to it.”

  “As you wish.”

  “Why did you call us here, Revenant?” Aeris asked.

  Coll
iere seemed as uncomfortable answering to the title as August was hearing it used for her. He still thought of Aeris as their leader.

  “I want you to stay here, if you can,” Colliere said.

  “Why?” August asked.

  “Two reasons. The first has to do with the Garoult. Our peace with them is still fragile. The loss of these Garoult tonight—no matter how much their lack of sane thought might have played a part—could spark a new war. As much as I hate to admit it, it is a war we would lose.”

  “You’re the Vontani,” August said. “These guys had to create a superweapon before just to even the playing field with you. Pretty sure one of you could take down a hundred of them.”

  “Which is why they will come with tens of thousands. You forget, champion, that we only occupy a small slice of this world. The Garoult are plentiful. They are clumsy, stupid, and smell like they were born from an umari’s ass, but their numbers are great enough that we would not last a day. The Vontani would be no more.”

  August could feel Aeris’ eyes on him. He decided not to look back. “Alright, what’s the second reason?”

  “Because you owe us,” Colliere said.

  “Whoa, what? Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you push a button and call us in to mop up a fight you couldn’t win? You asked us for help.”

  “And the reason we needed your help has everything to do with you and nothing to do with the Vontani.”

  “What the hell did we do?”

  “We crossed Paralos,” Aeris said. Her jaw tensed. “His champion is dead because of us. We knew he was going to retaliate.”

  “Yeah, which is why Ion had that button thingy made up in the first place. Look, we came, didn’t we? Aren’t there a lot of dead snakes out there?”

  “And many dead Vontani,” Colliere answered. “Irreplaceable Vontani.”

  Any reply lost its steam before it ever left his mouth. “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “We have scientists working on artificial fertilization, and some women ready to bear child who were pregnant before the Garoult’s weapon killed our men, but we are years from ever increasing our numbers enough to survive. Life is precious, even more so when you have enemies as dangerous—and numerous—as ours.”

  “So what do you want us to do?” he said. “We can’t stay here forever.”

  “Stay here for now,” Colliere replied. “That’s all we ask.”

  Under any other circumstances, it wouldn’t be an unreasonable plan, but both he and Aeris knew it couldn’t happen. Aeris crossed her arms and faced the open balcony. He knew it as the you break the bad news signal.

  “Let us sleep on it,” August replied instead. “We can stick around one night, at least. I’ll send word in the morning.”

  Colliere smiled again. She glanced to Aeris, whose back was still to her.

  “You should be out there,” he said. “Somebody besides His Cloneliness needs to be telling stories.”

  “Until the morning, then,” Colliere said, attempting to regain her usual serious expression. She stepped back toward the door. “I will leave you two alone.”

  He waited until the door shut to approach Aeris. He tried to put his hands around her waist.

  She stepped away and faced him.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Why did you tell her that?”

  “To go out there? I thought she needed a drink.”

  “You know what I mean,” she said, walking past him.

  He slumped his shoulders. “I just didn’t want to tell her ‘No,’ okay?”

  “That much I already knew. My question was why?”

  “Is it so bad if she has hope for one night?”

  “We cannot stay here. Not even a day.”

  He sighed. “I know.” Now that Colliere was gone, he pushed the button to retract his mask. The rush of air prickled the edges of his circuitry. “So let’s have the rest of it.”

  “Is this another phrase I am supposed to understand?”

  “I mean, what’s the real problem?”

  Her purple eyes focused on his. She and Bear were the only ones who ever seemed like they were looking at him instead of his mechanical parts. “What were you thinking out there on the dock?”

  “I had it under control.”

  “Under control was the farthest thing from what you were. What you are.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I think you know. Taunting Gemini. Running into the middle of that army like you could take them on all by yourself.”

  “In my defense, I didn’t die once.”

  “August!”

  “Okay, I’m sorry.” He tried to smile. “I thought my boldness was one of the reasons you loved me.”

  She laughed briefly, shaking her head. “Love,” she said.

  “Are you saying you don’t?”

  “Sometimes I wonder if you even know how to love, or if revenge is all you care about.”

  “Wait a second. So if that was the Phaelix out there—the man who killed over half your population—are you trying to tell me you wouldn’t have gone after him? You don’t even have to answer, because I’ve already seen what you did. Everyone tried to stop you from fighting him and you did it anyway.”

  “The Phaelix was not one of the most powerful beings in the universe, either.”

  “Gemini can be killed.”

  “Not by you. Not alone.”

  He took a step back. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “He is not the man you once knew. He is too powerful now, August. And you—” She broke off before continuing.

  “I’m what?”

  “Nothing.”

  “No, go ahead. Spit it out. I’m not strong enough? I’m not worthy? I’m not a cloned god?”

  “You are putting words in my mouth.”

  “Only because you’re too afraid to say them.” He wished he had the words back as soon as they left his lips. He tried to reach out for her. “Hey…”

  “I should go back,” she said, pulling away.

  “Aeris, wait.”

  When she threw open the door, Cerenus stood outside, hand raised to knock. She passed him like he wasn’t even there.

  “I was just…coming to check on you two,” he said. He looked from Aeris’s back to August. “Are we all right?”

  “We’re fine,” August replied.

  Cerenus tracked Aeris’s departure before turning back to August with a smile.

  “Don’t even think about it, Blondie.”

  “You know me so well.”

  “She’s taken.”

  “Oh, I see. By you, I gather.”

  “Yeah. We kiss and everything.”

  “Do you? Still?”

  August ran his hands through his hair.

  Cerenus lowered his voice. “Did you tell Colliere our plans yet?”

  “No. I will.”

  “The Vontani cannot stay on this world a second longer. You know this. They will not take kindly to a forced relocation.”

  “They’re survivors. They’ll understand.”

  The godclone laughed. “Understanding and acceptance are two different things. What about Aeris? Have you at least told her?”

  “Not yet.” August flipped his mask back on, giving in to the need to hide again. “Just make sure you make yourself sober before you get back to the ship. We all need to leave by morning.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Laughter filled the halls of the Reventry, something Bear hadn’t heard in a long time while aboard Cerenus’s ship with the others. He took a final swig of the drink the Vontani called frille and set his mug on a table.

  “More?” a Vontani woman asked him. She started to pour, the spout of her pitcher nowhere near its target.

  “I’m all right.”

  “This was to say thank you.” The woman looked at him with a lazy smile. It seemed hard for her violet eyes to focus.

  “I think maybe we’ve both had enough.”

&n
bsp; “Perhaps you have, Champion. I am not ready to see this night end yet.”

  She toasted him with her mug and wandered back into the party.

  Bear looked around the room after she left. August and Aeris were off with the tall woman, Colliere, meaning the Horsemen would be with them. Cerenus was still entertaining the horde of women around him. Bear took the opportunity to slip through the doorway leading out to the courtyard, passing another pair of drunk Vontani on the way. They raised their glasses to him as he walked down the pathway toward the docks.

  The smell coming off the ocean reminded him of summers when he and his parents used to go down to Sunset Beach, a little island on the North Carolina coast with an old single-lane bridge connecting it to the mainland. Before they drove across, Ray had always stopped at the Crab Shack by the side of the road and made them eat their weight in blue crabs. By the time they actually got to the beach house, Bear was too full to ask to go out to the beach, something he guessed Ray had planned all along after a day’s long drive. The thought made him smile. Memories of his father no longer stung as much as they used to. He wondered if that was a good thing.

  He stopped checking over his shoulder for August or any others in the Alliance once he got to the edge of the settlement and made it into the trees. To hear August tell it, the Vontani could hear a pin drop from a mile away, which meant he had a ways to go before he felt safe. Not that any of the women were sober enough to hear much of anything. Their celebration was almost as fierce as their fighting.

  The Reventry was barely visible on the hill from the spot on the coast where he eventually settled. He hadn’t gone a mile, but with the waves crashing nearby, he doubted even the Vontani would be able to hear him. The stars were brilliant overhead. The heavens were so clear, he couldn’t tell if it was the coming dawn or the stars bringing so much light.

  He released the gauntlet on his armor, exposing his skin to the warm sea air. He flexed his fingers and felt the tug of Meryn’s mark against the tendons beneath his wrist. The blue stone she’d implanted sat lodged in between his muscles and bone, away from August’s prying mechanical eyes. He pressed down on the inside of his wrist, opening his connection to Meryn.