by Matt King
“They’ll be long gone, you ignorant ass,” Cerenus said. Michael could feel him grasping weakly at his thoughts. “And before you finish this little journey Paralos set you on, you will know something else.”
Michael tensed. He gathered his power, ready to set it off at any moment.
Cerenus’s voice sounded choked as he continued. “You didn’t beat me. You could never beat me. Paralos kept me here.” He laughed weakly. “That’s why he lied to you. If you didn’t know he interfered, Amara couldn’t steal it from your thoughts.”
“I don’t care,” Michael said.
“You should, because now that you know…” The god’s light dimmed, nearly going out. “He’ll have to kill you.”
“Let him try.” Even as Michael spoke the words, a streak of nerves rolled through him.
“One more thing before you finish this,” Cerenus said.
“Better hurry.”
“I actually feel sorry for you. Finally a god, only to have it taken away from you so soon. If Paralos doesn’t kill you, Pyra surely will. This universe is at an end, my friend. You’re a king, Gemini, but only for a day.”
Michael let loose with as much energy as he could expend, directing it with an angry scream toward the withered husk of Cerenus, who met it with a laugh.
The outrush of energy was overpowering, and it didn’t take long to finish the fight. The great and powerful Cerenus—god of arrogance and excess—lost his light and died, just like everyone else.
Michael absorbed the influx of energy greedily, as though he was afraid he might lose it. When he became whole again, when he’d fully become the thing he’d been dreaming of since the war began, all he could think about was running, running to escape what was coming—whatever fate caught up to him first. He looked around him, seeing the far reaches of the cosmos differently now. Small circles dotted the endless black of space like pores. They led to pathways, pathways that could take him far away from anyone and anything.
He sped past the planet, aware on some level that the Vontani were no longer there. He knew it, not just from Cerenus’s words, but from a knowledge he wasn’t sure how he’d acquired. Part of him felt like he was operating on auto-pilot, like he’d suddenly become imbued with more knowledge than he could ever understand. Rather than fight it, he followed his newfound instincts instead, and they took him from one synapse connection to another as he sped off through the universe.
He ran as fast as his powers could take him. A god for only a few seconds and already he felt more vulnerable than he ever did before becoming the Gemini.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
There’s too many of them.
The thought occurred to August more than once as they stormed to meet the charging Ministers. He, Aeris, and the Horsemen were only six versus too many pairs of eyes for him to count.
He switched back to his normal vision to better see them coming. The fog flashed bright white before his eyes. He could hear the Horsemen close on his heels. To his right, Aeris matched his stride step for step.
The first wave of Ministers formed their energy staffs when they got close. Aeris leapt in front and let loose with a wide arc of fire shooting from both hands that tore through the cyborgs. The blast wasn’t strong enough to kill them, but if left them struggling to move on the ground.
“Up there,” she said, turning to August.
“Up where?”
She planted her foot on a platform leading up through the fog that he hadn’t seen. “Here.”
The fog swirled around their feet as they ran in a line up the ramp. Below them, the Ministers started to recover.
“Do you even know where this goes?” he asked as he turned back to make sure the Horsemen followed.
“No, but we know it’s defensible. We can stall them here until the Orphii come.”
“If they come,” he reminded her.
“I have been in their position before,” she said as she paused on the looping path. “They will fight.”
The ramp took them higher until they were running through a patch of thinning fog. The wind temperature shifted from chilling to a constant warm breeze. As they rose, he looked down to his left to see if he could still make out the Ministers stirring on the ground. Something dark blocked his view.
“Where’d they go?” he asked.
Aeris looked over the side. She stuck her hand out. Her fingers pressed against something. “I think this is a tree,” she said.
August only had a second to look closer before the thin floor beneath his feet started to rumble. The Ministers were coming.
Aeris led them up the narrow path until they broke through the top of the fog and saw the planet—the real planet—for the first time.
Misshapen trunks rose high above the earth on all sides, thick stalks that stretched above the fog toward a pale sky. The tree his group circled traveled halfway up the height of the drill, but even it was dwarfed by other mammoths nearby. Thin walkways circled around each trunk, breaking off into networks of pathways between the trees. Hanging from the great branches that spread out over the fog bank were long vertical boxes, hung like Chinese lanterns, nearly invisible with their light gray walls set against the colorless sky. Some of them had windows cut into the sides and a few had flickering lights within. There are people living in those things. The thought brought a sinking feeling of dread. There were thousands of homes, sometimes hanging three to a single line, and now they were all in danger.
Where the drill had fallen, it had taken some of the trees with it, leaving walkways suspended in air, broken in half where they’d been torn in two by the fallen goliaths. The yellow ring of lights near the top of Galan’s weapon pulsed steadily, but hadn’t started to spin yet.
“No, we haven’t,” Aeris said as she looked out over the destruction.
“Haven’t what?”
She looked at him like she was busy on the phone. “Send as many as you can spare. We will figure out something.”
August checked over his shoulder to see the Ministers closing in from below. “I hate to interrupt, but if you’re done talking to yourself…”
“I was speaking to Meryn,” she said. “Ion says the weapon is designed to detonate immediately if it is breached. He found no other way to disarm it.”
It’s never easy. Why can’t it be easy just once? “Are the rest okay? Is Bear?”
“They’re trying to find a way to disarm the machine, as will we. The Orphii will be here soon.”
He looked over the side and saw the heads of some of the cyborgs running up the ramp. “Any ideas on what to do until then?”
“Possibly,” she said.
She walked past August until she was just beyond the Horsemen. After stoking the fires in her hands, she shot two wide bolts down through the walkway, letting them burn until they cut through three of the rings below. With a loud crack, the paths gave way, sending the Ministers plummeting through the fog.
“Now, we need a way to disarm this device,” she said as she walked back.
August glanced up at the drill. It dominated the sky. “I don’t suppose it would help to look for a power switch.”
“Jokes are not helping.”
“Okay, okay.” He looked around, hoping to come up with an idea, but all he could think about was the ticking time bomb looming over them like a mountain.
A mountain…
“Are you still talking to Meryn?” he asked hurriedly.
“Yes.”
“Ask her if there are any Mountains with the Orphii. She’ll know what I mean.”
Aeris gave him a double-take before repeating the question to Meryn. “She says she has one, but it may take longer to get here. What is a Mountain?”
“A really big Orphii. Almost as big as that thing,” he said, thumbing over his shoulder.
“And what will a Mountain be able to do that we won’t?”
He started to answer and then let his mouth hang open, waiting for the second half of his plan that h
e hadn’t quite worked out yet. “I don’t know, maybe it can…throw it? Like, far?”
Aeris shook her head. She looked off to the side. Her violet eyes suddenly grew large. “There,” she said.
August followed her stare to something that looked like an iron football hovering above the fog. “What is that supposed to be?”
“The Ministers’ way off this planet. Do you remember destroying the Silence back during our fight on Garoult?”
His stomach tensed as he thought back to the shockwave that nearly killed him when he blew up the device. “Yeah, I remember.”
“I need you to do it again. If you can destroy that ship, the Ministers won’t have any means of escape. Maybe it will force them to turn the machine off.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Galan doesn’t seem like the caring type. He might not give two shits about sacrificing them.”
“He will care,” she said as she looked above him.
Higher in an adjacent tree, two figures stood on the edge of a platform with a dozen Ministers on either side. In front was Polaris, a tall figure in white next to the wall of gray tunics. Beside her was Talus.
A cold shiver ran across August’s skin.
“Go,” Aeris said, still staring at the two champions.
“What? I’m not leaving you to fight both of them.”
“The Horsemen will stay with me. We only need to stall them.” She turned and grabbed him with both hands behind his head and pressed her lips against his mask. “Bring that ship down.”
He didn’t want to let go. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
“I’m where I need to be,” she answered. “Now, go, before it’s too late.”
He took a breath and jumped down to a long walkway that led to the Ministers’ ship. He was so stunned by the sudden plan, he forgot to complain that he was being sent off to destroy an enemy cruiser with nothing but the swords on his back.
Just please let her be there when I get back, he thought as he ran. If I get back.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Cutting off the Ministers’ path up the tree was only a temporary solution to Aeris’ problem. What she hadn’t told August was that the Orphii were taking longer to travel to the planet than Meryn had thought, so he might have to make the trip without support. He was always better when he didn’t know the full extent of his situation. She had her own problems to deal with—namely Talus.
And Polaris, she reminded herself.
She’d been looking forward to facing her for so long, it felt strange to wish the cyborg hadn’t come. She’d dreamed of killing Polaris on a grand battlefield where all could witness as she used Dondannarin’s chakrams to behead the creature that had killed her friend. Having Talus in the mix complicated things. She might have to wait for another day to kill the soulless monster. What she needed to do now was give August—and the people living on this world—time.
She turned to the Horsemen. “She will send her inferiors after us first. Watch for incoming from all sides and use the platforms to our advantage. The fall may kill them faster than any of our weapons could.”
The brothers answered with a nod in unison.
She moved ahead to a section of walkway that acted as the nexus for multiple paths through the trees. The short length of path broke off into three separate walkways on either end. If she could hold one end of the nexus and the brothers the other, they might be able to survive.
She removed the gold band around her hair, freeing her senses.
The first wave of Ministers appeared through the thin haze of fog ahead of her. With her hair down, she should have been sensitive to their heartbeats, but Galan left so little trace of the humans they’d once been. Only the brain was left behind to drive the machines, meaning she couldn’t use their heartbeats or muscle movements to predict their intentions. Hearing and a sense of smell were her second sight. All she saw from the Ministers was an absence of life in the shell of a man.
As she prepared to fight, she kept an eye toward Polaris. The machine looked down at her with hair like strands of light and eyes that were as dead as her metal frame. She still had the scar on her face from the last time they’d fought. Aeris smiled.
The Ministers converged on the paths ahead of her. A quick look over her shoulder confirmed the Horsemen faced the same numbers. She would have to trust the brothers could survive the onslaught. They’d never faltered before.
She ran toward the machines before they could coordinate an attack. The fire in her hands ran up her arms as she unleashed a pair of searing bolts. The blast killed three, slicing through their hard outer shells. Tradition taught her to utter the names of her avenged when an enemy fell by her hands. As the machines’ lights faded and the time came to call out the names of her fallen, she held her tongue. Only one Minister mattered. She would save her proclamation for Polaris.
The blast had nearly emptied her. Her fight was just starting, but she didn’t have enough for a second shot so quickly. The advancing Ministers kicked the remains of their brothers off the side of the pathway and charged with their staffs ready to strike.
Their attack was relentless. She wanted to fight without resorting to Dondannarin’s chakrams on her back—they were meant for Polaris—but her enemies were too many and her fire too precious. She gripped the handles of the weapons tightly as she drew them from their scabbards and held onto them with a fierce grip. She divided her senses between tracking the enemies at hand and keeping an eye on the Horsemen, who she could hear fighting behind her. Every time she had a moment to breathe, she looked back at them and made sure all four were accounted for before returning to her fight.
A blur of charred gray moved out of the corner of her vision. Talus was on the move. His great sword loomed over his shoulder as he ran. She followed his path to a broken network of pathways near the drill. August ran in the same direction only a few levels down. They were both headed toward the ship.
He’ll never survive, she thought, but she had said those words to herself before and August had always come back to her.
A Minister ahead of her charged. She looped both chakrams around his neck and pulled, severing his head. The chunk of metal hit the ground and rolled off the platform. He was the last of the mob sent to kill her. The rest had been dismembered or lost through the fog.
“You surprise me,” Polaris said from above.
Aeris checked on the Horsemen again before answering. Their fight had also ended. The four of them made their way to her platform. “You should have brought more Ministers,” Aeris called back. “These did not do as well as you hoped.”
“Oh, I have brought more than enough,” Polaris said.
“Then lead them into battle yourself, creature.”
“You are mistaken. I am afraid you and I are far from where the battle will take place.”
Aeris watched the crack across Polaris’ shell shift as she smiled toward the ship. The cyborg shifted her stare to the floating fortress. Aeris closed her eyes when she realized what she’d done. Polaris had set a trap and August was set to spring it.
Aeris, Meryn spoke inside her head.
“Speak,” she whispered back.
The Mountain will arrive soon, but the rest of the Orphii are here now. I am sending them to your location.
“No,” Aeris answered. “You have to send the rest to August.”
August? Why?
“Because he is in trouble.”
As soon as she said the words, an explosion lit the fog near the ship, well below the ship’s hull.
“August!” Aeris cried out. She ran and leapt over the side of the walkway to another path below leading toward the cloud of fire.
She only made it a few steps before Polaris landed in front of her. She created two bladed weapons from the shell of energy around her hands. Her eyes shined like blue wildfire. A squad of Ministers appeared through the fog, joining her at her side.
“You will not save him,” Polaris said. “Not this time.�
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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
An explosion sent August flying into the side of the drill. He hit the metal wall and bounced down to the mountain of debris surrounding the base of the machine. The first thing he did after confirming he still had all his arms and legs was to make sure he still had his swords. He’d been in the middle of taking them out when he tripped the sensor along the path. He’d turned and run as soon as he heard the first beep, probably saving said arms and legs in the process. Still, it hurt like hell to be that close to a bomb going off. His ears rang with a high-pitched whine.
Smoke and fog mixed, making visibility even worse than when they’d first arrived. And then there was the smell. The burning trees smelled like he was downwind of someone barbecuing a sweaty fat guy. He stumbled through the thick mists in the general direction of where he’d come from. The ground, splintered by the drill, made headway almost impossible. It was mostly by accident that he stumbled on a dirt-covered section of pathway, leading up. A Minister seemingly hovered above him in the fog, eyes fixed on him. Beyond the cyborg, the ship’s lights created halos of red in the sky.
Only one? I can get by one.
The little mechanical asshole must’ve sent a brain mail to all his cookie-cutter friends, because it wasn’t long before footsteps started to echo through the trees. Once a dozen or so had come to his aid, the Ministers advanced.
Amidst their heavy, thudding footsteps, he heard a sound like high-pitched piano keys. Oh thank God. I thought you guys would never show up.
The Orphii came down in a rain of lightning.
One exploded through the group of Ministers and carried them with it to the ground below. August waited for it to return, and when it did, it emerged from the earth with a body made up of black rock, root tangles, and pieces of the Ministers’ armor. The Orphii looked like a walking statue of Moose Tracks ice cream.
“I don’t suppose Meryn taught you English yet,” August said as he sized up his new friend. The Orphii stood nearly seven feet tall—one of the small ones. When he heard August’s voice, he turned his diamond eyes to him and let out a low moan.