by John Hook
“You waited until now to bring that up?”
“I didn’t want to give you too many worries all at once.”
“Luckily, I have an idea of how to make this work.” Saripha smiled. “Blaise, do you have any objections to my entering your mind?”
“Mi cabeza esta tu cabeza.” Blaise made a bowing gesture.
I heard Saripha tell me to wait until she was sure we were ready. It was a voice in my head, but I was used to Saripha being in my head. I had given her permission long ago. She didn’t do it very often, but it was usually important when she did.
I could see Lazitar was becoming more agitated. He hated all this mumbo jumbo even more than I had when we first got into it. I couldn’t blame him. That was his grandmother trapped on the other side of this door. I remembered how impatient I was when I thought Rox was at risk. Thinking about that reconnected me to the great sorrow I felt over the situation with Rox now.
I could see his muscles bunching, his jaw tightening.
“Lazitar, I know this feels painfully slow, but we are doing what has to be done. We will free Adaxa. Please, be patient.”
Lazitar didn’t answer, but he nodded and I saw him will himself to relax a bit more. He clearly wasn’t happy.
Saripha had Blaise sit in front of the door. She eased herself down in back of him like she used to do with me. She was communicating inside his head. He relaxed and began breathing deeply. They sat there like that for a while. I noted Blaise didn’t look all that different in a trance than he looked normally. Finally, Saripha touched a number of points along his spine and then struck several blows with the heel of her hand to the base of his spine. I saw him nod as if in answer to a question.
“I think we’re ready,” Saripha said inside my head. “Blaise and I will share vision and mind and I will communicate the patterns to you.”
I turned my attention inward, watching my breath, feeling the blue energy expand with each breath. I walked up to the door and placed my hands against it. I felt my energy once more merge with the door and could feel the energy flow. The energy of the door was like a series of rivers that were constantly changing course. I felt like I needed to use my energy to create a big lake in which all the rivers flowed, but the flow patterns were shifting too rapidly. I couldn’t determine their origin nor their destination.
“Let us show you something.” It was a blend of Saripha’s and Blaise’s voices in my head, which was a little unnerving.
Within the energy flows that I perceived as rivers a new, brighter pattern appeared, like a current in those rivers. These currents did not flow the same in any of the rivers, but when I tuned out the rivers and just concentrated on the brightly lit current, I could see it was a single pattern, though it was still not clear what the pattern was.
“Try this.” Saripha and Blaise again.
I had been observing the rivers as if they flowed across flat space. Now they spun around and the space seemed to open up and roll in on itself, forming a deep bowl-shaped “dent” in the center of that space. I directed all the brighter energy, the current, into that bowl. As I did so, I merged my blue energy with the current until, after a great deal of concentration, a key formed. I plunged the key into the exact center of the web of rivers and turned. The rivers became like ribbons, spiraling out, away from the center, and there was a flash.
Because the door appeared to be made of light, I expected it to just dissolve in some way, but instead, it retained its integrity and just swung to one side.
What I saw inside the room was startling. The room was elaborate and appeared to be carved out of light, most of it in the blue to purple to midnight blue, almost black, range. In fact, the room looked larger than one would have expected. There were five intricately carved columns placed about the room, and in the center was a tall throne. On the throne sat a woman of such incandescent youth and beauty it took my breath away. I had expected a “grandmother.” She was more like a goddess in some Eastern culture, dressed in fine silks, trimmed in jewels. Her skin was a deep purple, her eyes like burnished gold disks, her hair deeply black. A goddess, except for the wires that traveled up the throne from the floor and were attached to something over her heart.
Lazitar rushed forward and bowed at the foot of her throne.
“Adaxa, my Grandmother.”
She surveyed all of us but stopped with my eyes. I had the oddest sensation that I had seen her before, but that certainly seemed unlikely. It was also spooky because I had had a similar sensation with Zara. She cast her eyes down to Lazitar, who apparently was going to stay in his devout position until acknowledged. It made me wonder whether she was really his grandmother or if that was more like a rank.
“Lazitar, what are you doing here? You know I cannot be freed. You are putting the dreaming in danger.”
Lazitar rose slowly and motioned in our direction. “I believe these strangers can free you and have agreed to do so.”
Adaxa looked back up to me. I could see in her face that, although she looked like a young woman in her early twenties, there was something ancient in her eyes. “He does have the dreaming in him, but he is not powerful enough yet.”
Her eyes continued to Saripha. “This one is very powerful, although not with the dreaming. She stands at the center of a web of silver threads that extends across many lands.”
Lazitar was getting impatient again. He was trying not to show it to Adaxa. “You said you could free her.”
“Yes, we can.” Izzy ran up to Adaxa. I and Blaise followed. “And Lazitar is right, we can’t waste time now. If what Bela did is discovered, we’re cooked.”
Izzy followed the wires to where they entered the silk folds of Adaxa’s dress at a position between her breasts. I almost had to laugh at how awkward Izzy became as he realized what he had to do next.
“Ma’am… Adaxa?”
“You may address me so.” She nodded.
“I have to see what those wires are attached to.”
“They are attached to what keeps me prisoner here.”
“I need to see it. I believe it has been disabled, but we need to make sure.”
“Do what you will. I’m sure there is nothing you can do,” she said sharply.
I could still see Izzy hesitating. Nothing bothered him, but he was very sensitive about how others might feel. We didn’t have time for this.
“Adaxa.” I looked from her to Lazitar because I wasn’t quite sure if I needed permission from both. “Izzy needs to open your dress. The device is no doubt attached to your skin. We mean no disrespect and I don’t know if you have feelings of modesty about such exposure, but we need to do this and we don’t have much time.”
Adaxa paused. She looked at Saripha and said something very strange in the context. “You have suffered a great loss. I am sorry things are as they are.”
Adaxa turned to Izzy. She reached up with slender fingers and released a clasp at the top of her silk dress that unwound the silks to her waist. She was stunning, truly a goddess. Her purple skin was decorated with jewels even under the silks, presumably her whole body. She showed no signs of shyness in her partial nudity, but sat poised with confidence and a compelling regalness.
Saripha came up next to her to make things a bit more private as Izzy went to work. I came up because I needed to see what Izzy was doing.
The wires fed into an egg-shaped device with a small, round screen of the stretched skin on it. On that skin, tattoos would appear and start changing. The egg-like object was attached to a porcelain ring, which in turn was attached to a thick patch that looked almost like a Band-Aid made out of the fleshy substance, but very thick.
“Do we snip the wires?”
Izzy shook his head. “No, I think that’d be a mistake.”
“Wouldn’t be our first, I guess. But I thought we had a data loop fooling them downstairs.”
“Yes, but we can’t be sure there isn’t some kind of health-of-the-system monitor. We disconnected one input and c
onnected another, but all circuitry’s still intact.”
“So we leave the wiring in place and disconnect Adaxa.”
“I think that’s our best shot, Quentin.”
“How’s it attached to her? Looks like that fleshy stuff, but it isn’t being used as a screen.”
“See the porcelain ring on top of it?”
“Bet it has those little microfibers the collars have.”
Izzy took a small tool he had taken from downstairs and pried slightly on the ring, lifting one edge from the skin patch. We could see the undulating biological microtubes. Izzy blushed an apology to Adaxa because the only way to get the leverage he needed to lift the ring was to rest his hand on her breast. If she was offended or amused by it, her face showed nothing. Lazitar seemed not to care, so I was guessing this culture didn’t have our hang-ups about nudity.
Izzy turned to Lazitar to include him, as well as Adaxa, but he addressed me.
“I have to warn all of you that I’m guessing here.”
“Adaxa, in my experience Izzy makes very good guesses,” I noted.
Adaxa nodded.
“The skin patch is being used as a sensor for Adaxa’s biometrics and maybe even for her energy field when using the dreaming. The lucky thing here is that the biological microtubes don’t need to penetrate her real skin. We should be able to remove this whole device with no consequences unless they reconnect the data feed.”
Saripha spoke up. “Do we know how firmly the skin patch is attached?”
“No.” Izzy sighed. “I could try prying it.”
“Could we just pull the porcelain ring away?” Saripha offered.
Izzy rubbed his head. “Maybe, but any break in this contraption could trigger an alarm, if only a maintenance alarm. They invested a lot in keeping her here.”
Saripha rummaged around in a bag and brought out a wooden box that contained a cream.
“Adaxa, I have a mixture here that reduces pain, at least in humans. I suspect it will work on you.”
Adaxa’s eyes blazed. “I will not need your ointment.” She reached with a delicate purple hand and placed it under where the data recorder was attached. Her eyes sparked and purple light flashed around the device. She pulled it free from her chest.
Adaxa dropped the device and it bounced on its wires until Izzy grabbed it. Adaxa rushed over to Lazitar, deftly rewrapping her silks about her. I saw Lazitar rush Adaxa out of the room. It seemed such a natural reaction I didn’t think twice about it. Blaise and I watched Izzy study the recording device. The round screen on the egg-shaped portion was blank now. No tattoos.
“It doesn’t seem to be sending out an alarm.”
“Would we know if it did?” I asked.
“Probably be getting some unwelcome visitors. Maybe an Angel,” Blaise answered.
Saripha touched my shoulder. “I’ll go out and wait with Adaxa and Lazitar. I want to talk to her. We need to get moving so don’t take too long with the gadget.”
Saripha turned to leave. Instinctively, I turned my head to look out the doorway where I assumed Adaxa and Lazitar were waiting. A flash of light emanated from the door and suddenly the door swung into place and was sealed.
“Quentin?” Saripha shouted my name. I had never quite heard such desperation in her voice.
“Maybe it was on a timer. No problem. We can open it again from this side.” I was winging it. Plain and simple, we hadn’t planned on this contingency. I had no idea if I could do the same thing from this side.
I walked up to the door. I didn’t know if we had to have the linking between myself and Blaise through Saripha, but I decided to try it. This time I knew what to look for.
I pulled inward and merged my energy with the door. I saw the changing rivers of energy, but this time, when I focused on matching harmonics, I could just make out the deeper currents. I found the dent in space and begin filling it. The key reemerged. At last I sensed the door swing away.
We rushed out. We found Kyo and Azar bending over Anika, who was just pulling herself up. She had blood coming from her lip and nose and a redness on the side of her face that would probably turn into a bruise. Her bow had been broken into pieces and lay at her side. Izzy rushed over to her, helping her up.
“What happened?” I asked Kyo.
“Where are Lazitar and Adaxa?” Saripha asked.
“I’m sorry, Saripha.” Kyo stood up. “Azar and I received your mental summons. When we got here, Anika was stunned on the ground. This is how we found her.”
“Anika?” Izzy asked.
“It happened so fast. One moment, I’m standing next to Adaxa and Lazitar waiting for you to come out, the next moment Adaxa shoots out some light and the door closes. Then, before I have time to react, Lazitar slams me in the face. It felt like a freight train. I was on the ground.”
“Adaxa did this.” I had never seen Saripha like this. Her face was a mixture of red hot anger and dark sorrow. I knew why, of course. Everything she had done since we had arrived here to free Guido had just been betrayed by the one person she needed help from the most.
Anika hung her head. “I’m sorry, Saripha. I–I should have…”
I interrupted. “Anika, we were all just caught off guard. Don’t blame yourself.”
Suddenly Saripha dropped to her knees and a soul-shattering sound came from deep within her. It was ear splitting, but it wasn’t a scream. It was more like a roar, but one that came from a place of great power. The whole floor began to shake. I grabbed her and held her to me.
Tweedledee and Tweedledum appeared.
“Get her out of here. Take her to Roland!” Before I could react, one of the demons wrapped his arms around both of us and we were back in the desert with Roland’s troops. The sound was still coming from her throat, but it died down and she broke into sobbing as Roland ran over.
“What happened?”
I waited, holding Saripha in my arms as she sobbed with every fiber of her being. In the time it took her to get herself under control, Tweedledee and Tweedledum had transported back Kyo, Blaise, Izzy and Anika.
“I take it things did not go well,” Roland commented dryly. We watched from our distance as the horsemen widened their circle to include all three towers and they dropped down.
“They aren’t going to be happy either. We took away the source of the dreaming.”
“But you can’t free Guido?”
I watched the frozen figure on the throne atop the tallest tower. Nothing had changed even with Adaxa gone. Guido was still trapped in that form. We would still need Adaxa to free him.
“So now what do we do?” Roland asked.
“For now, return to Zaccora. There is nothing we can do here yet.”
Saripha had gained control again, and although she was trying to put on a good show, her eyes still held her anger and disappointment.
“I guess I start over. I have to find a way to free Guido.”
“We have to find a way, Saripha. We are still in this together.”
“How do we know they aren’t hiding somewhere in Antanaria?” Roland asked.
Anika rubbed her head. “Before he hit me, I heard Lazitar and Adaxa mention going to some holy place.”
Azar popped up as he usually did, out of nowhere. Apparently, he had some of the teleporting abilities as well.
“I can confirm they are nowhere in Antanaria,” we heard in our heads.
“I appreciate everyone’s efforts and sacrifices. Right now I need some time alone, to think.”
“I always find the lodge conducive to thinking,” Azar offered.
Saripha smiled, but it was strained. “Thank you, old friend, but I think I need to return to Ohnipoor. To the jazz club.”
One of Tweedledee or Tweedledum put his arm around her and she was gone.
I touched the other one and leaned close to what I thought was his ear and whispered, “Don’t leave just yet. I need a favor.”
I walked over to Izzy and Anika. “You going t
o be all right?”
Anika wiped blood across her mouth and licked at her fingers. “I’ll be all right after the next time I see Lazitar. You only need Adaxa, is that correct?”
“So we are heading back to Zaccora? Then what?”
“I haven’t planned that far ahead, Izzy.”
“I thought you had a Plan B.”
“Plan A was supposed to work.”
“Does your Plan A ever work?”
“Yeah, but this was Saripha’s Plan A.”
Izzy laughed. “Yes, I suppose it was.”
“We’ve got to do something,” Izzy said to no one in particular.
“We will,” Blaise said. He had been standing off a ways reflecting, as we all were.
“Right now, head back with Roland. Get some R and R. Izzy, make sure Anika heals okay. I’m assigning you personal nurse duties.”
“He’s a terrible nurse.” Anika smirked. “Although he does other duties as assigned very well.”
“What about you?” Blaise stared at me. “I get the feeling you aren’t coming back with us.”
I shrugged. “I have a little last something I want to try. Might get us some useful information.”
“Alone.” Blaise’s look intensified.
“I have to. I’ll explain later.”
Blaise studied me. “Make sure we don’t have to come dig you out of no pain factory later, babe.”
“I promise.”
He turned and walked towards the others as Roland and Kyo gathered the troops and they began their retreat across the desert.
I watched them depart. I turned to Tweedledee. Or maybe it was Tweedledum.
“This is probably going to be more dangerous than the pain farms.”
The Azaroti looked at me with his smiling Buddha face. His expression didn’t change.
It never did.
8.
I had never tried to get to a precise location with the Tweedle twins, so I wasn’t entirely sure it was possible. In this case, not being precise could be a disaster, so as carefully as possible I created a picture in my mind’s eye of the basement of the left tower in Antanaria. Anika had just been there, but it had been a while since Izzy and I were. Like I had with the bridge in Zaccora, I focused to try to recall as many details as possible. If we landed outside the tower, or on another floor, there was a good chance I’d be in the middle of all the activity generated by the discovery that Adaxa was gone. I might learn something from the activity, but I didn’t want to land in the middle of it. I wanted to observe it on my terms.