Claryce grabbed me before I could fall.
In my head, the dragon also grew fainter. Eye am . . . being . . .pulled away . . . Eye am . . .
He went silent after that.
I reached for Her Lady’s gift.
But Lon beat me to it.
Quiet Ford jerked, then gasped. He slumped in his guards’ grip.
And out of him burst the Feir’hr Sein.
I’d seen that look in Quiet’s eyes and recognized it immediately. I’d had my suspicions when I’d seen the severed hand on the deck.
Lon swooped down toward Galerius with a speed I couldn’t possibly have matched at that moment. His hands came together and shaped the scythe, which he raised even as he neared his quarry.
I could see Her Lady’s hand in this. She wanted that card. Both cards, if possible, and she’d used Claryce and I to get to it.
The tommy gunner made the mistake of stepping up to fire. The Feir’hr Sein slashed through him, leaving the top half to stand horrified before falling off. By then, Lon had closed on Galerius. The scythe came down—
And with a howl, the Feir’hr Sein abruptly twisted and contorted horribly for a moment before simply ceasing to be.
My insides felt as if I’d just gone through what Lon had, but I pushed forward, Her Lady’s gift finally drawn. Even though only a few yards separated us, it seemed miles.
I didn’t like the fact that Galerius seemed to be having less trouble standing. Again, he appeared to be doing everything without the card, which made me wonder why he needed it at all.
Just when I thought I was going to reach him, another obstacle rose before me. I couldn’t tell if the golem was still just a physical body for Galerius’s thoughts or if it now had some autonomy of its own, but it lunged in and grabbed my sword arm at the wrist. I’d known it’d had tremendous strength, but, combined with its cold touch, the force with which it shoved back my arm was enough to stop me in my tracks.
“‘Ware, Master Nicholas!” Fetch was suddenly there in the struggle. He clamped his jaws on the golem’s other arm just as the faceless figure was seeking to plunge a second toothy dagger into my side. Fetch used his full weight to keep the arm down while he worried it, in the obvious hope of shaking the foul weapon loose.
But out of the corner of my eye I spotted a new concern. Claryce was moving slowly but methodically toward Galerius. She walked as if pushing through water. Her eyes were focused but unblinking.
I was prepared to shout a warning when my throat literally froze tight. Using my brief distraction, the golem had switched his grip to my throat in barely a heartbeat. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. I could barely maintain my grip on the sword.
Gritting my teeth, I turned the hilt toward the golem’s head and shoved as hard as I could.
Its hat went flying off. The hilt struck the side of the thing’s head, cracking the latter open as if it was made of clay. The damage didn’t seem to have any effect on the golem, who continued to both freeze and crush my throat.
Then, I forgot all about my suffering as what I dreaded most happened. With a smile I had to call malevolent, Galerius stared at Claryce.
She slowed. Her hand shook.
She became transparent.
“You are history again, Saint Cleolinda,” he said to her. “History, legend . . . and lost to both.”
I tried to scream. It came out a raw gasp.
Just like Lon before her, Claryce simply ceased to be.
I expected to fade away immediately after. After all, I was no longer Saint George. I was a former tribune whose life had been saved by a woman willing to sacrifice herself to save others.
But I didn’t vanish and neither did Fetch, whose history had to have altered since he’d now never met me. It occurred to me then that this close to the nexus of Galerius’s work, we were in some sort of timeless point. Unless Galerius specifically focused on us, we still had a semblance of existence left.
But that wouldn’t last much longer, especially if I couldn’t stop the golem. Steeling myself, I twisted my hand at as best an angle I could and cut downward.
The impossibly sharp edge of Her Lady’s gift sliced through the golem’s arm as easily as butter . . . or even stone. The forearm and the hand clutching my throat dropped cleanly to the floor. The golem continued to move the stump about as if still trying to strangle me.
I twisted toward the arm Fetch held in check. A clean slice left the lower half, including the dagger, dangling in Fetch’s jaws. He shook his prize a few times, then tossed it aside.
“Master Nicholas!” he whined. “Mistress Claryce!”
“I know!” I pointed at the two other guards by Quiet’s body. “Deal with them!”
His expression turned determined. “Oh, aye, Master Nicholas!”
I shoved back the golem, who was trying to grapple with me despite having nothing with which to grapple. A broad swing severed the shattered head from the body. As the head flew to the side, the body finally collapsed.
My stomach churned more. By now, I knew that meant that the card was feeding the Gate in order to make Galerius’s “corrections” stronger and greater. There was no telling how much he’d altered reality already. I had to hope I could somehow guide it back to what it’d been. It still shocked me that some part of Claryce had decided to give it to him.
I closed on Galerius. He stood straight. The signs of his awful disease had faded to a few patches visible on his cheek. He calmly glanced my way, then returned his attention to what he was doing.
I didn’t like the fact that he appeared unperturbed, but I nevertheless followed through with my attack, thrusting Her Lady’s gift through his chest and praying for the best.
That is, I tried to thrust it through his chest. Just before it would’ve pierced his flesh, the tip shifted, rising to a higher point on Galerius’s chest. It did so not just despite my struggles, but I sensed against the sword’s desires as well.
The blade cut through the material there, then seemed to strike something that it couldn’t penetrate. Worse, Her Lady’s gift let out a metallic screeching and went dead in my hands. All the power, all the magic with which it’d been imbued had drained out of it in an instant.
Yet, that wasn’t the end of things. Galerius’s torn garment at last revealed not only why he’d been able to do so much without the card, but how he had been able to manipulate so many things throughout the centuries.
The second card was sealed so tightly against his skin that, at first, I’d taken it for a tattoo. It was an actual card, though, the deuce of the same suit for that matter. The skin around its borders had been seared black by whatever force Galerius had used. From beyond the blackened areas, vicious streaks resembling veins of volcanic fury scattered about his torso. They pulsated with each breath Galerius took.
“It won’t come off,” he explained with a hint of wistfulness, of all things. “A worthy attempt, though, Georgius . . . but not so worthy as your astounding ability to remain intact despite the fact that you should be dust blowing away in the winds of time! How is it the corrections haven’t caught up to you yet? That shouldn’t be possible!”
“I don’t know and I don’t care. Bring her back, Galerius!”
“I’m afraid there seems to be no room for her in the history I’m correcting, just as there should be none for you! It’s time you were a dead saint, just like all the rest of them!”
My stomach kept turning. I had flashes of memory that made no sense because they were of the world as Galerius was making it. Wars I knew hadn’t happened before. The Eastern Empire falling not with the recent war, but to Ottoman Turks back in the fifteenth century. Two American brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, being honored for the first true powered air flight instead of Gustave Whitehead, who I’d known.
Most unsettling of all, Kaiser Wilhelm II had abdicated at the end of the war, rather than hold onto power. The Germany that existed now was a republic, and while that should’ve comforted me instead of the prev
ious version where the Kaiser still ruled, somehow I couldn’t trust this new Germany’s ability not to eventually descend into something worse.
These and other memories flashed through my mind in an instant, but their sum total change from what I’d known the world to be shook me to the core. Most of what had altered had done so only as peripheral to what Galerius wanted. I couldn’t even fathom what the final results would be if I didn’t stop him.
“It’s Saint Cleolinda, that’s the key to finally removing you,” he growled as he grasped the sword blade without any apparent fear of slicing his hand. “That’s it! You must die and she must once again finish the battle so that she can be proclaimed and you just rot away!”
By this time, I could barely sense the Gate or feel any link to it. If the dragon was still with me, I couldn’t tell. “Think what you’re doing. The card is a treacherous tool. The more you use it, the more it twists what you want. Eventually, it’ll consume you one way or another! Look what happened to the Triple Man!”
“I’m much smarter than that, Georgius! The forces behind the Gate are the only thing capable of countering the dangers of the cards. That’s why I needed to trick Joseph Sperling into doing those cal culations. I had to know where everything would balance out. This is the safest location in all the world. Once I have true mastery over the Gate, nothing the cards do can affect me anymore!” He held the one card before me. “It’s been like old times, Georgius—pardon me, Nick!—and so let’s end it just like then . . . with you dead.”
The twisting in my gut got so bad, I wanted to fall down and curl up in a ball. Nevertheless, I fought to keep standing. In fact, the more I fought, the less the twisting bothered me. It was almost as if—
I’m here . . . I’m with you . . . together, we’re strong . . .
The voice in my head didn’t belong to the dragon . . . it belonged to Claryce.
Eye. . . am. . . here. . . he interjected. There was a stress in his tone I’d never heard before, as if he literally sought to balance the world on his shoulders.
No . . . he added with more force. Just the weight of two saints this time . . .
For a second, I thought he referred to Michael and me, but then I understood it was Claryce he meant. The dragon was linked to both of us.
You are in this protected place . . . it allowed me to exist in both possibilities with both of those who slew me . . .
He didn’t sound angry about that. Instead, he sounded determined. He was maintaining an existence between the two realities, the one where he and I became one and the second where Claryce and he mixed blood instead.
He was doing it willingly, too. Willingly, rather than let Galerius achieve his desire.
Eye am the Gatekeeper . . .
He joined us together in a way that couldn’t have been possible without what Galerius was attempting.
Joined us together . . . and then, as one, we attacked.
CHAPTER 27
I was the weapon, the only true physical force in the pocket reality surrounding Galerius. I lunged at Galerius and was pleased to find that I moved normally. I left him grasping Her Lady’s gift, its only use now as a distraction, and seized hold of the card from Holy Name.
Galerius held tight to it. The two of us battled for control of the card. If I’d thought I could shred it, I’d have done so. Unfortunately, I was likely to shred sooner than the card. It’d been created to withstand the ravages of both time and its own monstrous power.
Worse, Galerius still had the second card. It stirred more as we fought. The scorched area surrounding it spread, and the volcanic veins crackled. My stomach started to twist again.
We are here . . . the dragon reminded me.
We can strengthen you, Nick . . . added Claryce soothingly.
I fought back the churning and took a chance.
I became the dragon.
As I swelled, I took advantage of Galerius’s surprise to use the dragon’s strength to rip the card from his grasp. Committed to my choice, I braced myself as my burgeoning wings and widening shoulders pressed against the ceiling . . . and then broke through.
I entered the deathly calm created by the forces Galerius had gathered. Beyond, I saw a raging winter storm tearing Lake Michigan asunder.
Below, I saw the gaping hole I created. The hole and four huge tentacles shooting up to me.
I offered to let the dragon take over. He knew his body and how best to use it in combat, but to my surprise, he refused.
Eye must maintain the ties between the three of us or we will truly cease to be . . . the battle must be yours . . .
I wasn’t thrilled by that answer, but I had no choice but to do as he said. Clutching the tiny card in one paw, I looked down and exhaled as hard as I could.
The plume of fire spilled over two of the appendages. One recoiled as the dragon’s flames set it ablaze. The other waved wildly due to the scorched flesh.
Unfortunately, a third snagged our tail and the fourth a lower paw. The struggle quickly became a tug of war.
I could still feel Galerius at work, but I knew that I’d at least slowed what he was attempting to do. The problem was that I needed to stop him completely and quickly.
I used the dragon’s strong jaws to bite deep into the limb holding the paw. The beast tasted like every bad piece of seafood I’d ever eaten combined, but I forced our jaws tight and then pulled.
I spat out the chunk of wet flesh the moment it came loose. The mangled tentacle thrashed about, then plunged into the water. I hoped I could do the same to the remaining appendage and free myself.
Of course, I wasn’t expecting the six tentacles that shot up to replace the others.
With a roar of frustration worthy of the dragon himself, I pushed as hard as I could toward the heavens. I knew that if I succeeded I’d be heading up into the storm Galerius had created, but that was a better choice than waiting.
I managed to evade two of the new limbs, but the other four snared my lower legs and tail. My momentum slowed, then stopped. I started to descend despite my push upward.
Summoning all the strength our combined wills provided, I flapped harder. Once more, I drove higher.
A moment later, a horrific gurgling arose from below. I’d been determined to focus on just continuing up, but I finally had to see what was making that noise.
It was the damned ugliest—and largest—squid I’d ever seen. White like a corpse, with pockmarked flesh and a huge hood longer than the Frank O’Connor. Instead of two massive saucer eyes, I counted four of the blasted things. Worst of all was the very sharp, gargantuan beak at the base of its body, a beak easily capable crushing dragon scale and thick bones. I wondered what the hell it’d been surviving on in Lake Michigan, then decided I really didn’t want to know.
The beak snapped open and closed, accompanied by a rush of water that was the source of the gurgling. Surrounding it were twelve tentacles, a couple of which were damaged from this and the previous encountered we’d had with it. I didn’t take any heart in the fact that it’d suffered some damage; from what I could see it wasn’t suffering much. It was just angry.
Kraken. . . the dragon uttered in my head. Kraken . . .
I’d heard legends of the creatures, but since I’d never seen one, I’d assumed they were either myth or something only found in Feirie. The latter probably had once been true, but someone at some point had brought one through the Gate. I hoped it hadn’t been done during my time as Gatekeeper. It’d been bad enough that Oberon had managed to slip a kelpie through. Of course, compared to the kraken, the kelpie might as well have been a goldfish.
The tentacles kept coming. All I could think to do was try to spin like I had before and start exhaling at whatever was coming at me first. I created a circle of fire that initially held the other limbs at bay and even made one loosen.
Then, four of the limbs retreated into the water. Just as I feared, they returned a moment later, carrying with them a wave of water so intense that
it not only doused the ring I was creating, but also struck me like Bears tackle Ed Healey earning his All-Pro in spades.
I tried to orient myself, but before I could, two more of the ten tacles had hold of me. If not for my constant flapping of my wings, I’d have been underwater already. As it was, I was losing altitude quickly. That beak was getting a lot closer and a lot bigger. I struggled harder, wanting to get away more than ever.
Then I felt Claryce and the dragon beside me, continuing to add their strength as they could. Claryce was the stronger, the dragon still also maintaining the bond between our alternate realities.
The kraken continued to pull me toward its gaping beak. There’d been a variety of ways I’d imagined my end, but this hadn’t been one of them.
The beak opened as wide as it could. I stared down into a gruesome pit.
And then I cursed myself for thinking like a human. I supposed the dragon hadn’t been able to focus or otherwise he would’ve arrogantly reminded me just what he was.
I slowed the wings. My plunge accelerated.
The kraken eagerly awaited its meal.
I rewarded it with a hot appetizer down its gullet.
The burst of flame shot straight down into the kraken’s throat. The monster might’ve had some resistance on his outer flesh, but the inside was nice and soft and quite easy to burn.
It let out a sound like a thunderstorm underwater. The tentacles released me as they flailed in reflection of the kraken’s awful pain. It didn’t matter how moist the kraken’s gullet was; the dragon’s flame was more than hot enough.
The beast dropped back into the lake. It immediately descended below the surface, vanishing in a flurry of bubbling waves.
Next to the last traces of the kraken’s departure, the Frank O’Connor rocked violently. Water washed over the deck. She looked precariously close to sinking, but somehow she kept afloat.
Keeping a wary eye out for any possible return of the kraken, I dove down toward the ship. I felt guilty at having abandoned Fetch, but he’d known I’d had no choice. I just hope he hadn’t tried to take on Galerius himself.
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