I glanced over the side, and another wave of fear hit me. People from the crowd were climbing up towards me. They were closer now, close enough that I could see what I did not notice before. They were scarred and disfigured. The one nearest me had a huge hole in his cheek, leaking saliva.
Wake up, damn it. Please. Wake up.
In the sky above me, a band of light streaked across the sky, like a falling meteor fragment burning up as it crossed through the atmosphere. Except the streak did not disappear in an instant. It stayed there, a slash of light across the sky.
I rolled onto my stomach. The pain in my back was torturous, and I was having trouble breathing, but I forced myself to stand. I looked up to see Adjet and Xander silhouetted at the peak of the pyarmid, a cloud of darkness swirling in the air around them.
A hand wrapped around my ankle and yanked me off my feet. I slammed face first into the coarse surface of the ledge. Then they were on top of me. Pawing me. Crawling over me. Crushing me beneath their weight.
I heaved myself up to standing. People were hanging off of me. One of them bit me on the shoulder, and I reflexively whipped my arm, knocking her away. I threw all of my weight backwards, carrying us over the edge, and we crashed down to the next level. The ones hanging off my back broke the fall.
I rolled off the corpses beneath me. We were almost at the base of the pyramid, but there were countless more bloodthirsty supplicants waiting for me at the bottom. I ran along the ledge, heading towards the corner where two sides of the pyramid converged.
As soon as I was close enough, I leapt to the ground. Every step was merciless. My back was wracked with pain, and it was spreading around to my chest. I pushed through it, focusing, one breath, one step at a time. This is wrong, I think. All wrong. I would never stab Xander. Adjet would never ask me to do that. Never.
My wrist was throbbing. I cradled it close to my belly to minimize the bounce as I ran. The slash of light in the sky was still shining above me, and I followed its course, away from the pyramid and into the desert. My only thought was to keep moving.
I do not know how much time passed, but eventually I found myself at the edge of a well. I found a stone on the ground and dropped it down into the darkness. If it hit the bottom, I never heard it. I slumped down, leaning back against the stacked stones of the well, and closed my eyes.
* * *
I opened my eyes. I was cradling Xander’s lifeless body in my arms. His head was tucked beneath my chin, a small trickle of blood leaking from the hole in his chest. I stroked his hair, and I was crying, and it was no longer Xander.
It was Saiara.
She turned her head up to me as if she were going to kiss me. Her mouth was open, and a point of light was shining in her throat. I leaned towards the light.
I was floating above the well, watching myself as I bent towards Saiara, bringing my face next to hers. A pale hand emerged out of the darkness of the well behind us as I watched my body lean over hers. The other hand followed a moment later, grasping the stones, holding onto the lip of the well. In the inky depths, a pair of eyes were shining, looking up at me.
The scene zoomed away, every detail still crystal clear, but tinier and tinier, until it was all just a single point shining in an endless tract of emptiness.
* * *
I surged awake, sucking in huge, gasping breaths. My heart was racing, and my body felt sore all over, but my ribs did not protest when I breathed. I tried moving my wrist. It was fine. Nothing was actually broken.
I was lying on my back. I slowed my breathing, calming my crackling nerves. Eventually, I propped myself up, my hands on the floor behind me, supporting my weight. I was back in the basement.
I looked around. The room was still dark, a single torch burning against the far wall. I did not hear any movement, but there was someone in here. Or something. A presence. Whatever it was, I was determined not to run this time. Whatever lurked in the darkness, I would force it out into the light.
I touched the base of my skull. The ridge of a transmitter was poking out from my field port. Right before I fell into the mad dream, someone had touched my neck. Adjet must have put this transmitter into my port, sucking me under.
I pulled the transmitter out of my head. It resisted for a moment, then slid out. The pain almost overwhelmed me. I fell back to the floor, breathing heavy, petrified at the thought of losing consciousness again.
The pain passed. The transmitter was warm in my hand. Its fibers were smeared with something that might have been blood. I shivered, repressing the urge to vomit.
I was tempted to drop it on the ground and crush it under my heel, but she had somehow managed to make a transmitter that had totally subsumed my waking awareness, and drawn me into an experience that was terrifyingly real. How she had done that with the limited resources at hand was a mystery that would need solving at some point. I pocketed it.
I stood and bumped my head. Damn it. I crouched and made my way towards the torch. I stumbled, catching my foot on something. There was a moan. I knelt down, and felt with my hand. A person. A man. His skin was feverish to my touch. He moaned again, but he did not move.
My eyes were adjusting to the low light, and now I could see the vague outline of a number of people splayed out on the floor. I sidled along the wall until I reached the flaming torch. When I did, I saw that there were other unlit torches lining the wall. I took up the flame and, moving back and forth along the wall, lit several more in each direction.
The scene began to reveal itself. The chamber was filthy. Rotting fruit and decaying animal meat were scattered around a small altar near the original burning torch. I leaned in closer to examine the icons on the altar, and realized that one of them was actually a live snake, coiled into a circle. Its tongue darted in and out, testing the air. The light of the torch reflected in its beady eyes and its shining green scales. It sat there watching me, maybe mesmerized by the flames of the torch, or maybe just used to people, and unafraid.
I swept the torch out towards the room to get a better look at the people who were on the floor. It was a horror scene. There were dozens. Many of them were completely naked. Everyone was filthy.
I came close to one woman. She was breathing, but, as far as I could tell, completely catatonic. I could see that her lips were scabbed and her mouth was surrounded by tiny lacerations. I pushed her lips back to reveal her teeth. They were brown and rotten, and her gums had receded. The stench from her mouth was disgusting.
I examined a few more, and all were in a similar state. Then, something awful occurred to me. I put my hand underneath the head of a man, and I felt it. A field transmitter, embedded in his brain stem.
These people were connected.
Then I saw Adjet. She was lying in a recession carved into the wall of the chamber, about halfway between the wall and the ceiling. I scurried over, holding my torch so I could see her. Her eyes were shut, a peaceful smile on her lips. She was still under.
I swept my torch along the wall. There was a whole row of the recessed berths. Each one had a person inside. And there was Xander, a few feet away, curled in a fetal position.
Tears welled in my eyes when I got closer to him. His face was a death mask, skin drawn tight around his cheeks, and dark, puffy rings under his closed eyes. He was naked, except for a small cloth wrapped around his waist. His torso was covered with ugly pinprick wounds, at least half a dozen marks, and his ribs pressed up against his skin. Most of the cuts had scabbed up, but some of them still oozed pus.
I felt behind his head. My fingers found the small ridge of the transmitter rising out of his neck. I was tempted to pull it right out, but I couldn’t be certain how this bastardized technology worked. Removing the transmitter could be catastrophic while he was still under.
He also looked too malnourished to move, even if he had been awake. I put my torch in an empty sconce in the wall and slipped my hands under his hips and back, lifting him out of the hole in the wall. His bones felt p
aper thin in my arms.
My tears came back. This was incomprehensible, that Adjet would ever hurt Xander like this. Yet the proof was in my hands. I had to get him out. I had to get them both out.
I made my way across the room, careful not to step on any of the people lying on the ground, and laid Xander down at the top of the stairs where I had come in. Once I was out of this low chamber, I would be able to carry them both. I made my way back to Adjet.
Her bed in the wall was empty.
I reached for the torch I had left in the sconce. Something darted out at my arm.
The snake.
It reared up, the upper half of its sinuous body moving in a hypnotic rhythm, like a flower buffeted by the wind.
It had bitten me on the forearm. In the torchlight, I could see two rivulets of blood trickling through the hairs on my skin. The area around the bite was already swelling and warm to the touch.
Poison.
I cursed and swung the torch at it, forcing it back with the heat of the flame. I was sweating, and my vision went a little blurry. I closed my eyes and shook my head. Focus. There was a very good chance that my system could handle this. I just needed to stay lucid while my liver rendered the toxin harmless.
Adjet swam up to me, the beatific smile still on her face. She seemed ephemeral, like a heat mirage. I lifted the torch, holding the flame between us, keeping her at bay.
“Hello, Oren.” Her voice sounded so very far away.
I tried to respond, to ask her why, but my whole face was numb. I could not seem to bring the words out of my head.
“Do not be afraid, Oren. The poison is working its way through your system. Although the people of this place would likely die from a bite like the one you just took, you are made of stronger stuff. Give it time. It will pass.”
I shuffled so that the torch stayed between us. Her eyes tracked my movements, and she turned a little, squaring off with me. She was alert, but her arms were relaxed at her side. She lifted her palms up and said, “You must have many questions. I tried to answer them for you, but you ran, and you even managed to wake yourself up. I shouldn’t be surprised. You have always been a person of tremendous will and resourcefulness.
“But you should not have run. Then you wouldn’t be standing here like this, confused and afraid. Instead, you would have the true knowledge of freedom that has been given to me. Don’t you want that, Oren?”
A wave of dizziness washed over me. The room started to spin, and the torch slipped out of my fingers. Before I could stop her, Adjet was next to me, her arm underneath mine, steadying me.
“Easy now. It’s okay. It will pass.” She slipped her other hand into her robe, then started to reach up towards my neck.
No. Not again. I shoved my shoulder into her. It was clumsy and slow, but she was too close to move, and my weight sent her stumbling backwards. She cracked her head against the wall and fell in a heap on the ground.
I went to her, lifted her up, and made my way towards the exit.
A hand wrapped around my ankle.
My knee came down to the ground. I cried out with the pain, but it sent a jolt through me, clearing my head for a moment. One of the catatonic sleepers had woken up. His eyes were wide open and dilated, and he had a gruesome hole in his cheek, saliva dripping out of it. I kicked out, ripping my leg away from his grasp, and tried to move faster.
More of them were waking up.
The one closest to me lifted his skinny body up at the waist, grasping at my leg. I kicked him square on the chest, knocking him back down to the ground. I glanced over my shoulder, towards the receding torch light. At least a dozen were moving now. A few were even standing up. One started walking after me. It wailed. The sound was filled with sadness, and rage, and longing.
The howl stirred something in the rest of them. Others wailed in response, the clamor of their discordant voices rattling in my ears. Some even sounded like they were speaking, but I could not discern their words amidst the din.
I was moving as fast as I could now beneath the low ceiling, Adjet in my arms, the poison still lingering in my system. The exit was just a few paces away.
One of them came from my right side. A woman. I hefted Adjet up on my left shoulder, freeing my right arm. I held it out like a battering ram, knocking the woman to the ground as I hustled past.
Then I was up the stairs. I scooped Xander up with my free arm, and I could stand taller now, and I was running, running as fast as I could, away from that chamber of horrors.
* * *
When I came outside, it was quiet. There was no one in sight. I took hope that Socha and the others had been successful in stemming Ghis’s lust for blood. Or, at least, that they were still trying, still holding court, still buying time. I would have to find a way to get back to Socha later. Right now, I needed to get back to the hopper and get Adjet and Xander to safety.
The hopper was concealed at the edge of the city. I was tired, still woozy, and Adjet and Xander were feeling heavy on my shoulders. I figured it would take me at least a half-hour to get there on foot, but I’d made much tougher journeys before, so I buckled down, and put one foot in front of the other.
I kept a strong pace, and soon I left behind the palatial district of Akshak. I was moving now through the area of the city where the bulk of the Kkadie made their home. The contrast was stark. These homes were simple. Most of them looked sturdy and well built, thick bricks of clay layered in the same fashion as the grander temples and manors, but they had none of the opulent flourishes that marked the wealthier classes. Other homes were even more basic. Ramshackle hovels with barely enough room for two people to live inside.
Without the technology that we have, a city like Akshak can only be built on the backs of slaves and servants, people like these, people who cannot afford to live in the grandeur the wealthy demand. But we had the means to do it differently. To build a world that was not riven by class divisions. A world where resources were abundant. Where cities were not built with the blood of those who were powerless. Where everyone had a right to life without fear of abuse or exploitation.
Instead, the Kkadie were on the brink of civil war, and there was a chamber underground filled with the evidence of this sickness. It was the same pattern. I had tried to help on Lin Den, so many years ago, and I had failed. Now, I was failing again, and who knew how many more would pay the price.
The thought almost broke me.
But we were inextricably entangled with these peoples now. There was no turning back. The only real choice was to help them move forward. As I passed before the simple Kkadian homes, Adjet and Xander still hanging over my shoulders, tears streaming down my cheeks, I vowed to make it right.
* * *
Time passed. I was sitting in the dirt now, the city far behind me, Xander and Adjet still unconscious, lying on either side of me.
“Magus,” someone said.
I froze.
“Magus?”
I turned. There was something familiar about her voice, but I did not recognize her.
She smiled. “I look rather different without my large hat, do I not?” she said.
I sniffled. “You… you’re the head priestess. Volda.”
She nodded. “The council of clerics has no formal leader, but we are here in my city, Akshak, where I am first among equals. You are much the same with your fellow magi, are you not?”
“Yes, although, right now, I don’t particularly deserve that honor.”
“I can see that.” She walked closer to me, pulling a rag from inside her simple robe. She was so tiny, much smaller than she had presented in her formal garb back at the conclave. I sat up straight, and though she stood above me, she was only a head taller.
She lifted the rag to my face, reaching out to wipe the snot and tears. “But you must take heart, magus. You came not a moment too soon. Many might have died tonight, if not for you and Socha. For that, you have our gratitude.”
It was such a tender, th
oughtful gesture that I started crying again. I couldn’t help it.
She laughed.
My face flushed with embarrassment.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I should not laugh. It’s just strange to see a man so large and strong, a man of such great power, reduced to tears.”
I saw myself as she must be seeing me in that moment, and my face cracked into a smile. Soon, I was laughing with her, laughing at the madness of it all.
After a while, I stood, dusting myself off. “Thank you, Volda. Is everything okay? Is Socha…?”
She nodded. “He is well. His return has been the source of much attention, and his influence has helped to stay Ghis’s vengeance, at least for now. He speaks to all who will listen of his past year on your isle, of the grand vision your kind promise us.”
I sighed. “I am sorry for everything that has gone wrong, priestess, but I will make this right. I vow it to you.” I looked down at Adjet and Xander. “But first, I need to bring them home.”
“I know,” she said.
We looked at each other a moment longer, then I said the command word: “Uncloak.”
The light refractor on the hopper withdrew, and the nimble ship was there, less than ten paces away, waiting to take us back to Manderlas.
I glanced at Volda, trying to mask my pleasure at her surprise. She had been very kind to me in my moment of weakness, and I was grateful to her for that, but it had also left me feeling vulnerable and exposed. This little bit of magic reminded her, and, more importantly, me, of the private laws that made me a magus in this world.
I was ready to get out of there, but a thought struck me. “How did you find me out here?”
“We have had eyes on the manor since you went in. I was alerted when you came out with these two on your back. We have been following you ever since.” She gestured with her hand, pointing behind her, but she was alone. All I saw were rocks and scrubs and the rolling, arid hills. Fires from the city twinkled in the distance.
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