The Cumerian Unraveling Trilogy (Scars of Ambition, Vendetta Clause, Cycles of Power)

by Jason Letts

  There were stories about people in the old days lighting them on fire from the surface, causing fire to shoot into the sky for days, or even people dropping sticks of dynamite down, collapsing a fissure and making the ground quake. But no Claw was bigger than the one the Bracken plant covered, and a timed explosion far below with a sophisticated device could conceivably crack the planet in half and throw all of civilization back thousands of years to The Time Before Light.

  Behind the soldiers, Sierra trotted into the dark tunnel, slowing down instinctively as the moist walls and the intoxicating smell of the gas hit her. Too much of it would make her feel lightheaded. She wondered what she’d find after passing through the coiling passageway and emerging below the seal, but the sharp sounds of commotion in the dark in front of her made her wonder if she’d ever reach it.

  A flurry of gunfire and flashes of strange but brilliant blue light ahead made Sierra drop to the ground against the wall and cover her head. The teens had staged a trap in the dark and were pummeling the soldiers. There were so many cries and yelps, groans and thuds, that Sierra had no idea what was going on. As the commotion quieted, she held her gun out and tried to peek along the twisting tunnel.

  A blue flash burst in front of her revealed hands coming for her neck. Sierra fell back and fired, but the hands kept groping forward. They were so bright in the darkness that Sierra could see oozing cracks in the skin. It was strange and made no sense. She’d never heard of anything like it…‌except long ago, when her dad had described the man who had caused his heart attack.

  “Nemi, sol!” she called, and the dragon leapt from her shoulder into the darkness. A masculine scream echoed into the air a moment later, giving Sierra a chance to aim and fire another shot. The sputtering noise and the sound of a body slapping the steel flooring sickened her, but she attempted to quell her rapid breathing and get to her feet.

  The only option was to continue on, even if there was a good chance someone else waited in the pitch black for her. Nemi returning to her shoulder caused more fright than it should have, and Sierra hoped he’d be able to warn her if danger lurked ahead. The rising whistle of the gas made it hard to hear anything, least of all any final murmurs coming from the bodies at her feet. She stepped on one and it made a choking sound. Her next step met something uneven and nearly caused her to fall. How easy would it be for one of the half-dead guards to use his last ounce of strength to shoot her when she was right there?

  But nothing happened and Sierra seemed to be in the clear. She crept around the tunnel, discovering its end where a couple of bulbs positioned below the seal helped reveal the exit. The gas pressure whipped through her hair, making it hard to get enough oxygen as she left the tunnel for the simple suspended bridge leading underneath the giant gas-intake valve and stopping dead in the middle.

  Against a backdrop of pale red stone, the girl with her hair up sat cross-legged near the end of the path fiddling with the explosive device.

  “Put it down!” Sierra ordered, holding the gas gun tight in both hands. As she touched the trigger, it dawned on her that gas guns ignited tiny capsules in order to propel the bullets. Doing that down here with the gas all around could be enough to set herself on fire. If Nemi got too hot he might have the same effect.

  The young girl looked up. She was surprisingly pretty, in a dark and morbid kind of way, but something in her eyes struck Sierra that the girl was utterly without fear.

  “Oh look, it’s a girlie,” she said, seeming amused at first before growing serious. “Your suit reeks of establishment.”

  “Look, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but you have to stop right now,” Sierra said.

  “What I think I’m doing is wiping out three oppressive hegemonies at once. Once Iyne swallows the Brackens, the Wozniaks, and the Illiams, we’ll be that much closer to being free and pure like we used to be.”

  It was hard for Sierra not to gawk at her. Crazy things came out of her mouth in such rapid succession that Sierra could hardly keep track of them all.

  “Like when we used to live in caves and had to lick slime off of rocks for food? What you’re advocating doesn’t actually make any sense,” Sierra said, but the girl was hardly paying attention.

  “Just a moment. I’m almost done,” she said, tinkering with the bomb. It made Sierra think she’d have no choice but to pull the trigger to stop her from activating it.

  “Hey!” Sierra shouted, and the girl raised her sight, snarled, and got to her feet.

  “You look like a boy I know,” she began coyly, slinking forward along the thin metal railing separating her from unmeasured depths. “I’ve never met anyone so good looking and so laughably sexually inept in all my life.”

  Knowing who she was talking about and spotting the malicious look in her eye, Sierra spouted the first thing that came to her mind.

  “No, he’s not!” she yowled.

  “Are you speaking from experience?” the girl laughed.

  Sierra’s face burned. Gritting her teeth, Sierra found that her adversary’s condescension polluted her mind and made it hard to think. She was already so angry she thought she would explode. What did Taylor say her name was, anyway? Oh yeah.

  “And what are you, Nissa, but a misguided fool who doesn’t like what she sees so she thinks we’d all be better off running around through the woods in some lawless anarchy? You have no idea how the world works. Here’s a newsflash for you: that’s practically what we have! Toothless laws don’t get enforced; people can get away with whatever they want if their families are powerful enough, and the only reason you don’t like it is because you want some of that power, too.”

  Sierra knew she’d gotten Nissa’s attention when she’d said her name, even if the girl pretended to yawn at everything else. By the end Nissa eyed her venomously, moving to the center of the bridge and tiptoeing forward. Sierra held her gun out.

  “Things are so wonderful for you, aren’t they, girlie?” Nissa sniped. “I’ll tell you what I know and you tell me if I’m wrong. You’re nothing but a corporate whore trying to survive and prove your competence when everyone looks at you like a piece of meat. Your male colleagues skate by while you’re subjected to tests and obstacles designed to beat you down and push you out. And at the end of the day you have no choice but to turn around, bend over, and let them fuck you in the ass with the long, sharp prick of misogyny, but you smile and pretend that you like it because you want some of that power, too. Am I wrong? Tell me. I didn’t think so.”

  The loathing welling up inside of Sierra made her skin crawl. She knew when she’d been called out, and at the moment there was too much truth to it and too much running through her mind to reply. Maybe Nissa was right, and the only way to solve problems was to destroy them.

  No longer caring what happened as long as she hurt this girl, Sierra pulled the gas gun’s trigger, and a fireball erupted in front of her that scorched her hands and face, blowing her back onto the bridge. The gun rattled onto the floor and fell down the chasm. The shot struck Nissa dead center in the chest, but when Sierra managed to open her eyes again she realized it had done nothing to deter her. Something bright and blue oozed out of the bullet wound.

  Nissa lurched forward, landing near Sierra and pressing a hand to her face. To Sierra, it felt like she’d been lit on fire anew, as if that hand reached through skin and bone to sear her brain. Sierra pushed and flailed, but pressing back against Nissa was almost as painful.

  Suddenly Nissa removed her hand and watched it erupt in an inexplicable blue blaze. It made no sense, but whatever it was it didn’t ignite the gas in the air like real fire would. Sierra had no idea what she was up against, but the prospect of fighting Nissa off with her scalded hands seemed hopeless.

  Whether or not he sensed her fear, Nemi crawled out from Sierra’s clothing at exactly the right moment. He hopped into the air and screeched at Nissa before she could get any closer. She swatted at him, but Nemi swooped around her attacks with the
agility and grace of a dancer.

  “What the hell?” she cried in frustration.

  “We all have our tricks,” Sierra growled.

  Nissa was too distracted to notice Sierra pulling back her leg until she’d been drilled in the stomach and knocked back against the bridge. Her head clacked against the steel platform and she emitted an anguished groan before she leaned on one arm to sit up. But instead of making up the lost distance to Sierra, Nissa turned around and fiddled with the explosive contraption on the platform.

  “Back in business,” she said, and the lights on the device flashed in unison.

  Sierra didn’t waste any time climbing to her feet. If that bomb was on, all Nissa needed to do was drop it over the side of the bridge. But by the time Nissa stood up and leaned for the edge, Sierra was already on her. It burned, but Sierra grasped the explosive and prevented Nissa from dropping it down the chasm.

  “Let go,” Nissa wailed, but Sierra was right up against her back, pressing her stomach against the railing. Sierra stared at the flashing lights and wondered how long until it went off, but the flashes came slowly, hopefully indicating that some time remained.

  Taller and with longer limbs, Sierra had the advantage and was pulling the bomb from Nissa’s grip. The girl’s hand sparked that blue flame again, which promised untold pain at the slightest touch. Nemi fluttered into view around their struggling arms and began flapping for the railing. Wide eyed, Sierra watched him drift closer until he vanished in front of Nissa, knowing that what was coming would require better timing and dexterity than she thought she could muster.

  A loud clink coincided with Nemi burning through the railing in front of them, and Sierra snatched the explosive at the same time she pushed Nissa through the gap. The girl tipped forward, twisting around enough to cast one more bloodthirsty look at Sierra before dropping headfirst down into the chasm.

  Nemi got out from around Nissa and returned to Sierra’s shoulder.

  It might’ve been a relief if it hadn’t left Sierra holding a ticking bomb in her raw, bloody hand. There was no telling how much time was left, and it was an awfully long way back to the surface, but Sierra did the only thing that might both prevent the catastrophic explosion deep in the core and save her life.

  Teetering away from the edge, she looked up at the fierce vacuum tube that continued to whip her hair. The bomb was about the size and shape of a shoe box, but it wasn’t heavy at all and seemed nearly empty. After all, it only needed to cause a spark to ignite all of the gas.

  Wondering if her father would ever forgive her and if people would ever know the Brackens bore the brunt of such a calamity, Sierra whipped the explosive toward the gas-intake valve, which sucked it in and would carry it toward the combustor.

  There was no time to think. Now only running remained. Turning tail for the tunnel and the seemingly never-ending spiraling ramp, Sierra ran for the surface with reckless abandon. If she couldn’t get there in time, her father and brother would die if they were still inside the cavern when the combustor blew.

  Sierra wasn’t a runner, and she’d barely made it out of the dark tunnel before her legs were aching. Up and up, it became more difficult for her to move her legs enough to make more than a foot-width’s progress with each step. Her face, hands, arms—everything continued to burn so much that her eyes teared up as she ran, which only made it all hurt worse.

  She had no idea how much time had passed when she made it to the ramp leading to the main platform, where her body would give out and she’d be at the mercy of whoever was there. If it was Carlisle, that meant her father and brother were already dead, and she wouldn’t mind being next.

  But as she lurched off of the ramp, gasping for breath and drained of all strength, she spotted her brother through her dazed vision. He was leaning over her father, who was on the floor, coughing and groaning. They noticed her as she fell.

  “We have to get out. Liquid hell, you’ve been shot!” she gushed, seeing the blood near her father’s shoulder. To her surprise, Taylor came over and lifted her up. “You have to help Dad.”

  But her father managed to get to his feet on his own, albeit with a nasty grimace. How bad was it that her father had been shot and she needed to be carried away? Carlisle’s body was nearby, but it seemed like a hollow reward when they all might die anyway.

  “Let’s get to the stairs,” Taylor said, lifting Sierra up like a big doll and throwing her over his shoulder. His hands were bloody, maybe even more so than hers.

  “No, the train. We have to get away,” she said.

  Taylor didn’t ask any questions, instead foregoing the nearby stairwell to the plant’s main doors in favor of quicker route to the train platform. Dad hobbled along right behind them despite his injuries. He had his sword in its sheath and it looked like he’d be OK.

  “Nissa?” Taylor whispered as they progressed through the passageway for another set of stairs leading up to the plaza.

  “Gone,” she said. Nearly incoherent, Sierra gave herself over to the jostling and the movement. The passageway drifted away behind her, but she was too tired to notice.

  “If we hurry we can catch the tram,” Taylor said, and the shaking increased. He was able to carry her up the stairs and out into the plaza, where the automated trains would come. They were powered by some auxiliary generators that would last for a while if the power grid failed.

  “But the town! I won’t give it up!” Lowell cried once they caught a glimpse of the approaching train. Sierra opened her eyes enough to see that the town had already sustained untold devastation. Dad turned for the road, but Taylor grabbed his shoulder and stopped him from going back.

  “It’s been overrun!” Taylor replied. “It’s a bad deal, Dad. Don’t throw your life away for nothing!”

  Taylor and Lowell shared a hard look before continuing to the train platform. Sounds of echoing gunfire seemed awfully close. Three of the helicopters remained, but two were gone. Anyone left would be in for a shock when the plant blew.

  If the train didn’t pass through every fifteen minutes anyway, Sierra would’ve thought the timing was serendipitous, but it was still relief enough to be brought in and set on one of the seats on the otherwise empty train. The harsh lights glared down upon her as the doors closed and the wheels started down the tracks.

  Dad kneeled down beside her.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll get you the help you need in Ristle. What happened?”

  As the train picked up speed and left the plaza, a thunderous boom echoed through the air. Dad jerked his head back and Taylor gazed through the window. Sierra could barely crack her eye open enough to see the brilliant flash engulf the area around the plant. The entire place turned into an inferno, setting off the bombs in Bracken Energy’s main tower, which went up in a thick column of flame that engulfed the entire building.

  Dad put one hand on Sierra’s knee and the other on Taylor’s shoulder.

  “I escaped with so much. All I need are my children,” he said.

  “But you don’t have all of us yet.”

  CHAPTER 26

  After spending countless hours in a dingy Toine bar consuming bitter beer and bad news about home, Randall Bracken slogged on foot to his apartment but stopped dead a short distance away on the sidewalk when he discovered his door was slightly open. Strange. He never left his front door open, not least of all when everyone he knew in the ClawLands was being slaughtered.

  He couldn’t hear anything, couldn’t see anything through the closed white drapes, but something was wrong. Peering at the door, he convinced himself the lock had been kicked in. Turning on his heels, Randall started in the opposite direction, trying to sort through the fog in his sluggish mind to deduce the situation.

  Perhaps somebody from the Ore Fields in town decided to pay him a visit, or even an actual member of the Wozniak family. Maybe it was just some random violence, a byproduct of all of the tensions raging in eastern Cumeria. There was no way to know for sure other
than to find out who was waiting in his apartment, and Randall wasn’t in the mood for that.

  A pair of figures appeared through the darkness ahead. Their helmets gave away that they were members of the Cumerian Guard, probably responding to a call from one of Randall’s neighbors to come dispel any trouble. Randall should’ve felt relieved, but he didn’t. Not knowing why, Randall ducked into a driveway and hid beside another house until the guard members passed.

  He had no way to be sure, but the way they marched didn’t make him think they were coming to help. Trying to hold back the urge to panic, Randall continued down the dark streets, avoiding the bright lamps and crossing his arms in an attempt to hide his face and fancy but disheveled suit.

  The closer he got to the capitol buildings, the more people were collecting in the streets. Picking up snippets of conversation as lurking in alleyways and backyards, Randall pieced together that Chancellor Aggart would be making a rare speech from the Spiral’s grand balcony. No doubt he’d be commenting on the dramatic outbreak of violence, and early guesses were that he’d lament the situation but roll over for his corporate brethren. Randall still held hope he’d win that election and replace him.

  But he’d never seen so many members of the guard on the streets of Toine in all his life. They were milling around everywhere, probably encompassing the entire army. And it made getting around for Randall extremely difficult. Some of them caught him while he hid in the bushes, but he made some convincing drunk sounds before they got a good look at him and moved on.

  Skulking along one final street, Randall made it to his office building and opened the door. Footsteps immediately alerted him that someone was waiting on the other side, but the door was already ajar and it was too late. He stepped in and braced himself for anything.