The Shoreless Sea

by J. Scott Coatsworth

  Dax laughed. “Only a teenager could be bored in a place like this. Destiny, meet Jackson, Frontier Station edition.”

  The redheaded man was clean-shaven, in his midtwenties by the look of things.

  Jackson’s eyes went wide as he took in the strange place he found himself in. “Damn, I was sure you were a juicer.”

  “Juicer?” Dax liked juice, but somehow he didn’t think that’s what Jackson meant.

  “Juice. It’s a drug. Makes you see all kinds of crazy things?”

  Dax shook his head. “Sorry.”

  Jackson shrugged. “So what happens now? You said I have some kind of magical power here?”

  “Dax!” Belynn appeared out of the mists and pulled Dax into her arms, hugging him. “Des, you okay?”

  “Se’s bored.” Dax grinned.

  Destiny blushed. “A little.” Se hugged Belynn. “So glad you are safe.”

  Her Jackson was older, maybe in his early thirties, and bearded. He and his doppleganger stared at each other.

  “This is flicking weird.” The younger Jackson eyed his older counterpart.

  “Tell me about it. You look like me when I was on Frontier Station.”

  Younger Jackson nodded. “And you’re me, but old. Am I still with Glory?” He frowned. “Wait, don’t want to know.”

  Older Jackson slapped him on the shoulder. “We’ve had a good life.”

  “Where’s Kiryn?” Belynn frowned, looking around at the featureless plain.

  “Someone call my name?”

  The mists cleared, leaving them standing in the middle of a seemingly endless white plain.

  “You’re here!” Belynn signed to her brother. She hugged him too, squeezing him tight.

  There were three people with him. One was the oldest Jackson yet, in his forties, his features lined but still cheerful.

  Se didn’t recognize the others. “Who are they?”

  Oldest Jackson grinned. “My friends, meet the Immortals.”

  ANDY REACHED into Colin, determined to throw out the interloper. What she found inside was darkness.

  She fell into an endless pit, a screaming void that swallowed her soul. She scrambled for purchase, for a way to claw herself back up out of the pit, but there was no way out. All was blackness.

  All around her, she heard Lilith’s maniacal laughter, booming through the inky black, and she knew she’d been tricked.

  Shandra! Belynn! Aine!

  No one could hear her screams, and no one came.

  Andy opened her eyes, but now Lilith stared out of them. She looked around, taking in her situation.

  She was about nine steps away from the wall, from the closest point where she could touch one of the roots that connected to the world mind.

  She’d waited so long for this moment, so many cycles. She had worked so hard for it.

  Her own world was dying. She had found a way to retain her memory through the cycles, moving toward the day when she would be able to make this leap. Now it was here.

  “Is he… okay?” Shandra put a hand on her shoulder.

  Lilith nodded. “Ollie is gone, sent back where he came from.” That much was true, now that his usefulness had ended.

  Nine steps.

  That was what separated her from safety. From escape.

  She heaved herself up. The old body she was in responded sluggishly, and she was out of practice moving human limbs. She tottered, and Shandra came to her assistance.

  “Thanks.” The room suddenly swam with rainbow-colored fish and purple parakeets.

  Not now. She’d kept such a tight control on her madness, even finding a nutrient supplement to keep her lucid for long periods of time. Not that her madness bothered her, particularly. It was as comfortable to her as an old glove. But for now she needed to keep her clarity. “I need to commune with the world mind.”

  Shandra stared at her strangely, then nodded.

  Maybe it wasn’t how the real Andy would have said it. The less she spoke, the better. She tottered across the room, grasping the wall like a drunk.

  “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Yes. Just light-headed.”

  She found the root and reached for it almost reverently.

  So long she had waited for this, and now it was time.

  She grasped it tightly and began her assault.

  AINE FELT a sudden pain. Intense, sharp, burning pain, as if she were on fire. She howled, and the whole world shook.

  She searched for the source of the pain, and it didn’t take long to find it.

  Something was encroaching upon her mind, slashing and burning its way into her like an invading army. Aine focused on where the pain was coming from. She sank a part of her consciousness into one of her defenders, turning to look around the room.

  Andy clung to one of her roots like a barnacle.

  Lilith.

  Somehow she had taken Andy and was pushing herself through the conduit between the inthworld and Forever.

  It was too late to destroy it, even if she could have brought herself to do so. Besides, her inthnauts were inside, and she risked permanent mental harm to them as well as to Andy if she broke that link.

  She could launch one of her defenders at Andy, but she might damage her sister-friend. Though that would be a small price to pay, if it came down to Andy or the world.

  Or she could try to reach Colin.

  Shandra was leaning beside him, wrapping cloth around his wounds. Shandra couldn’t hear the world mind anymore, not since all the loops had been cut out or burned out during the Possession.

  All of this flashed through her mind in less than a millisecond.

  She reached for Colin.

  She couldn’t connect to him.

  Aine fought Lilith with everything she had, but the woman was horrendously strong. Pairing her strength with Andy’s abilities, she was taking control of the world mind, inch by painful inch, forcing Aine backward.

  This was what she had most feared.

  Unlike Jackson, she wasn’t sure there was an afterlife waiting for her. And if she fell, if Lilith took her over completely, all those under her charge would likely fall as well.

  Colin! She reached for him again, searching for signs of consciousness.

  He was there, but she couldn’t touch him. He was too far gone in his pain, too much in shock. There had to be another way.

  My hounds.

  She couldn’t let them attack Andy, but maybe she could ride one of them. Knock Andy out of contact with her root.

  She reached for one of the dogs, bringing it to its feet. Its ears perked up, and it stood, turning its head toward Andy. It leapt across the small space, ignoring Shandra’s cries, and plowed into Andy.

  She was jostled but still clung to the root. Andy/Lilith turned to the hound and put out her hand to touch it. It crumpled to the ground and its vision went black.

  Aine felt its searing pain on top of her own.

  She reached out to the other hound and prepared to launch herself at Andy’s throat.

  She was out of options.

  Chapter Thirteen: Jackson

  BELYNN STARED at the newcomers—not just her great-grandfather Jackson, but three others who had to be Colin, Ana, and Lex. It was like waking up inside history.

  “Gordy’s in danger.” Destiny had gone white as a sheet.

  “Can you send us there?” Belynn shook her head to clear it. Time enough to figure out how and why the Immortals were there later.

  She let go of Kiryn, still wondering that he could hear in this place.

  Destiny nodded. “I think so. It was blocked, but now….” Se concentrated on the sterile room, on the space where Gordy lay.

  The air split and the room appeared on the other side.

  “Guess it beats dropping out of the air from the sky.” Belynn leapt through the split without another thought, followed by the others.

  She took in the room quickly. Gordy and two others were lying on the floor. A woman
… no, a fox? A human fox? Whatever she was, she hovered over a boy’s pale body on a gurney next to Lilith’s tank, apparently intent on releasing him. “Step away from the boy.”

  The fox woman turned around, surprised, taking in the suddenly full room.

  “Well, this is unexpected.” She lifted her weapon.

  Belynn instinctively brought up her hands.

  The purple gun fired, but its yellow beam hit a spot about a meter in front of Belynn and dispersed in a burst of gold.

  Undeterred, the woman slashed the air and a gateway opened to another room. “To me!”

  Three women jumped through, seeming unfazed by the strange occurrence. They dropped to their knees and fired at the newcomers.

  Belynn’s shield was failing. She could feel it bending toward the breaking point, but she had no idea how she had created it, let alone how to stop it from breaking.

  The fox woman’s guards continued to fire at her shield, pushing it back toward the party.

  She was weakening.

  Destiny came up behind her and put ser hands on Belynn’s shoulders.

  Ser energy flowed into Belynn, and the shield strengthened, pushing back across the room half a meter.

  Kiryn knelt next to Gordy. “You okay? Blink twice if you’re okay.”

  Gordy blinked.

  Kiryn gave him the thumbs-up.

  The fox woman had freed the boy from all the tubes and leads that had been connected to him. They were almost out of time.

  The room shifted, and once again Belynn could see the world as it was underneath all the colors and textures, the bones of the world exposed to her view.

  The fox woman opened a new gateway into the mists.

  Belynn studied it. She reached through the shield and touched it, seeing how it was built in the strange logic of this world and how it might be unmade. Unraveled, like she had done to the avatar Lilith had sent after her in Fargo.

  Alarms were going off all across the room now, probably set off by the disconnection of all the shunts attached to poor Jackson.

  The fox woman yanked the cable out of the boy’s head and leapt for the gateway.

  Belynn pulled on the string and it collapsed, leaving the woman to crash into Lilith’s tank, hard.

  The glass cracked but held.

  Now. It was time to take the fight to Lilith, to finish things between them.

  Time to undo her, once and for all.

  “ANDY, WHAT the hell?” Shandra’s voice was shrill with disbelief.

  Andy stared out of her own eyes for just an instant, seeing the hound lying dead at her feet. “It’s not me. Shandra, you have to….” Her voice died in her throat, and Shandra’s distressed face disappeared, swallowed up by the blackness.

  Lilith clamped down on Andy’s persona, forcing her back into the depths. That was too close.

  She had to finish what she was doing or she’d be trapped in her own world again, a world that was rapidly coming to an end.

  Shandra eyed her uncertainly. “I have to… what?”

  “You have to help me keep that thing at bay.” Lilith glared at the other dog. “I think Lilith’s taken over the world mind.” That should keep her busy just long enough.

  Shandra looked back and forth from her to the beast.

  Lilith pushed ahead with her attack on the world mind.

  “How did we meet?” Shandra was looking at her strangely.

  Lilith stared at her. Shandra’s face melted, running down into her clothes like wax.

  She shook her head to clear it, and Shandra returned to normal. “Why are you asking me that?”

  “How did we meet?”

  “Through… through a mutual friend.” She had too many things going to rummage around Andy’s mind looking for such trivial information.

  “What friend?”

  She cast about for a sensible answer. “Colin. Colin McAvery.”

  “What was your lover’s name, before mine?” Shandra’s eyes were narrowed.

  Lilith faltered. “It was… it was such a long time ago. How am I supposed to remember?”

  Shandra raised her hand, a knife gleaming in the golden light of the room. “Wrong answer.”

  “SHANDRA, DON’T!” Lilith held one hand out, pleading. This couldn’t happen. She had fought for this moment for so long. To be denied now would be a cruelty beyond imagining.

  Shandra’s face was hard. “Let go of the root.”

  I’m so close. Aine was in retreat under her onslaught. The world mind was almost hers. She dropped all pretense. “You have to understand. I’m dying. Without this chance—”

  “Then Andy is already dead.” Shandra’s arm went back.

  The knife flew through the air.

  Time slowed to a crawl.

  Lilith felt the connection between her world and the outer one being severed.

  Her world was cycling. It was tugging her back toward oblivion.

  She screamed as she was dragged back into the pit, as the world dissolved into a mad tangle of colors and smells and grating noise.

  Andy’s eyes opened.

  She was falling again, but this time it was her body that was dropping to the hard ground.

  Something sparkled in the golden light as it flew by.

  She hit the floor with a thud, and the world ceased to be.

  AINE’S WORLD shifted too, the pain bleeding away like an ocean wave, gone in an instant, leaving behind smooth sand.

  Something had happened to Lilith. Aine could breathe again.

  The world stopped shaking, and her strength slowly returned. It could only mean one thing.

  Something was happening in the inthworld.

  BACK IN Lilith’s lair, Belynn started toward Lilith’s tank, murder in her heart.

  Kiryn reached out to pull her back.

  She turned on him. “Let me go!”

  “Belynn… you can’t. Not this. It will change you forever. Don’t do this.”

  She snarled. “I don’t care.” She was ready to end this. “It’s time Lilith paid a price for what she did to us.” To me.

  Off to the side, the fox woman sat up, looking stunned.

  Kiryn pulled Belynn to him, hugging her tightly. “Please. Not like this.”

  Belynn closed her eyes, resting her chin on Kiryn’s shoulder.

  She was so close. It would be cruel if she couldn’t finish it now, after all this time.

  Belynn looked up, and her mouth dropped open.

  In her tank, Lilith was thrashing, her tentacles flailing in the air, sloshing nutrient-filled blue water over the edge of the glass. The crack from the fox woman’s body blow was spreading, an eerie creaking as it raced across the glass, the surface bulging outward at an alarming rate.

  “It’s gonna give!” Belynn grabbed poor unconscious Gordy by the collar and pulled him back frantically away from the tank.

  The side of the tank exploded, showering Belynn and the others with glass and the foul nutrient liquid.

  Lilith followed it, her tentacles reaching for the invaders in her sanctuary as she loomed over them. The smell was horrid. Belynn thought she might puke.

  The fox woman looked up at her bulk.

  “Move!” Belynn leapt at her, knocking her out of the way. They slid across the floor, away from Lilith’s fetid bulk.

  Lilith found her balance and turned hard to come after them both.

  Belynn turned to the fox woman. “We have to fight her together.” Belynn didn’t like her, but they had a common enemy.

  “Agreed.” The woman held out her hand. “Zaimann.”

  “Belynn.”

  Zaimann held up her hands. A curved sword appeared between them.

  Belynn did the same, summoning a sword two inches longer.

  Zaiman grinned. “Nicely done.” She leapt forward to meet Lilith’s charge, her tail flying out behind her like a battle pennant.

  Belynn followed.

  For such an ungainly creature, Lilith was wickedly fast and
nimble.

  Belynn managed to slice off a tentacle, earning a howl from the creature, but then Lilith knocked the sword out of her hands. Another of the sickly blue limbs wrapped itself around her hands and dragged her forward through the smelly liquid and glass scattered from her cage.

  Lilith opened her mouth, showing an impressive set of sharp yellow teeth.

  Belynn had only a second to wonder if the real Lilith had been so endowed or if this was an inthworld enhancement. She used the tentacles that held her as leverage and kicked Lilith hard in the teeth, knocking a few out.

  Lilith thrust her away with a bloodcurdling, drawn-out scream.

  Belynn hit the back wall hard, knocking the breath from her lungs.

  She gasped, struggling for air. When it finally came, she forced herself up and tried to find the thread in the inthworld pattern that would undo Lilith.

  Kiryn was fighting next to Zaimann now, but he had no weapons.

  Belynn was dizzy. She couldn’t concentrate hard enough to bend the inthworld to her will. She fought to conjure another weapon.

  Lilith wrapped herself around Kiryn’s waist and pulled him toward her, hard.

  It was Belynn’s turn to scream as Kiryn was sucked into her maw, his body chomped in half by her broken teeth.

  Belynn fell to the ground, the life sucked out of her by what she’d just seen, her heart broken.

  Kiryn is gone.

  She couldn’t process it.

  One minute he’d been there, and then—

  She couldn’t bear to see it again. She couldn’t unsee it.

  Her hand slipped under the muck and found her sword.

  Lilith had taken the thing she held most dear in the world.

  Please. Not like this. Kiryn’s last words to her.

  Kiryn, I’m so sorry. She stood on shaky legs, holding the sword in her right hand, balancing on it like a cane. I have to.

  Lilith had Zaimann wrapped up tightly now, her milky eyes leering at the fox woman.

  “Liiiiiilith!” Belynn screamed, gathering her remaining strength and raising her sword. She threw herself at the monstrosity.

  The light changed like someone had thrown a switch.