These aren’t Gyrevex. Which means this is not the Harbinger’s doing. Then who? If I didn’t know better I would say they were some kind of rogue monitors, thought Sylk.
Then Sylk heard the sound.
He grabbed Rin by the shoulder, practically spinning him in place.
“You must gather all who are here and leave now. Find the Keeper if you can and get him away,” said Sylk. “The Watch is lost. Save all you can. Go now!”
Rin, visibly shaken, ran off to begin the evacuation as Sylk headed deeper into the Watch. He saw as a Rah Ven leapt into the air, only to land in several parts scattered around the courtyard. All around him were scenes of death and destruction. It was clear the Watch had suffered the greater losses.
The sound came again, closer this time. Sylk had known it only as the sound of certain death. It was the sound of a muffled explosion followed by slicing wind. It was the sound of Roman’s hammer unleashed.
In the center of the courtyard, beside the obelisk covered in symbols, stood the Keeper. He was bloodied, and his robe was torn in several places as he leaned on his staff. In front of the Keeper stood Roman, dressed like the attackers only in black. His jet black hair hung straight and framed his face. He had a thin but muscular frame. In his hands, he held a double-headed hammer that was almost as large as he was. Sylk stood behind a wall in direct view of the Keeper.
“Tell me where he is, Keeper,” said Roman.
“You know I cannot.”
“You will bear witness as I reduce this Watch to rubble?”
“Do what you must,” said the Keeper. “Your mistress must know that it will not remain rubble for long.”
“If you know her, then you know she does not suffer failure,” said Roman. “One last time, ancient one, where is the core ascendant?”
Sylk stopped in his approach. He was certain Roman had not seen him yet. He knew the Keeper knew he was there. Was Roman referring to Dante?
“He is no longer on this plane. That is all I know,” said the Keeper.
“Do you understand what is at stake here?” said Roman as he swung his hammer at the attacking Rah Ven. The hammer struck the ground before the Rah Ven sending a shockwave in all directions. The Keeper raised his staff to deflect the energy, but the Rah Ven, was not so lucky. The energy from the shockwave caught it full on, slicing it into smaller pieces.
“The question is, do you?” said the Keeper.
As the Keeper leaned on his staff, Sylk could see that he was barely hanging on. He was about to move out of his position when the Keeper looked at him and gave a small shake of his head.
“More riddles,” said Roman. “Pathetic. Your so-called guardians are useless against me.”
“They too do what they are sworn to do,” said the Keeper.
“Very well, old one. My patience is at its end,” said Roman as he struck the obelisk, shattering it. “Tear it down. Don’t leave one brick sitting atop another,” he said to several of the attackers standing behind him. They ran off in different directions at the instruction given.
“I will find him and he will do what needs to be done to keep the balance,” said Roman.
“Even if it costs him his life?” said the Keeper.
“What is one life in comparison to billions?” said Roman as one of the attackers came next to him. Roman nodded as the attacker said something.
“Do it,” he said to the attacker. “We continue the search until we have him.”
“Each life is precious,” said the Keeper.
The attacker nodded and headed off into the Watch.
“You have only prolonged the inevitable,” said Roman as the walls of the Watch began to vibrate and crumble. The Keeper slowly faded as Roman opened a portal and stepped through, leaving destruction in his wake.
Sylk ran over to where he last saw the Keeper. He could sense his presence, but it was faint.
“You cannot face him alone, Karashihan,” said the Keeper from behind him. Sylk turned to see the Keeper looking weary as he sat on a bench that formed itself under him. His robe was intact and the blood was gone.
“The Watch?”
“Is safe. This was not a true attack--merely a show of force. Aurora knows the Watch cannot be destroyed so easily. This structure is only a portion of the actual Watch. Most of it is underground. It does take its toll, however. So many lost today, senseless,” said the Keeper.
Sylk looked around, taking in the devastation. “It has the appearance of an attack. Why didn’t you let me…?”
“Roman has grown in power. More than you can imagine. It would seem that Aurora has elevated him.”
“He is ascended?” said Sylk.
“No, this power is not his. It has another source.”
“What source?”
“This is what you must discover, in order to defeat him.”
“Where are Dante and the others?” said Sylk, looking around at the destruction and bodies strewn around the courtyard. The smell of fire and flesh filled his nostrils. He wished it were an unfamiliar scene.
“Look to Grawl of the Rah Ven, he will know,” said the Keeper as he headed into what remained of the Watch.
FIFTEEN
LUNA GUIDED US through the streets of her city. It felt like any other small city. There was the bustle of activity with people going to and fro. I had a hard time imagining that every person I saw was a Rah Ven.
“This feels just like New York, only smaller,” I said.
She smiled and then it faded. “This is one of the last cities of my people. We are spread out all over the planes,” she said. “Once this is gone we will be on our way to becoming extinct.”
“Gone, why would it be gone?”
“Rah Ven are hunted. We make excellent guards when we are bonded to a location. Some have discovered that this process can be forced upon us. Making us no more than guard dogs,” she said.
“At the Watch?” I asked.
“We serve the Watch willingly. One of the few places where we are honored as what we were and are.”
“Come, we must not stay out in the open long, even here there are eyes and ears that would betray us,” said Luna.
We headed down winding streets and through alleys. She would go down one side street, only to double back and then cut into an alley. In the alley she would find a door, which would take us into a business. We would exit the business after a few minutes and begin the process all over again. After an hour of this she led us to the side of a building that looked like a cathedral.
“In here. We should have lost any spies by now.”
“What’s in here?” said Meja.
“We are making a small stop to pick up someone you know and then we are heading back to your plane.”
We entered the dark of the large building. The vaulted ceilings gave an impression of space. Our steps echoed as we made our way across the floor.
“It’s good to see you guys again,” said a voice I recognized. It was Zen.
“Zen! Damn, it’s good to see you,” I said as he gave me a bear hug and forced the air out of my lungs for a moment.
“The Watch?” said Meja.
“Has fallen,” said Rin as he stepped out of the shadows. “I must go back, but I wanted to make sure I kept my word to you, warrior. You must go back to your plane. Ascendants are dying and things will only get worse.”
“How could a Watch fall? Who could attack a Watch? What about the Rah Ven?” I asked.
“All good questions, warrior. I only know the leader of the attacking force wielded a very large hammer and asked for you by name,” said Rin.
At the mention of a large hammer, my blood ran cold. I only knew of one person who used a hammer as a weapon. It was Devin’s killer, Roman. Meja visibly blanched when she heard the description.
“Are you certain it was a hammer?” said Meja.
Rin nodded. “I am certain. It had the power to stop, to destroy the Rah Ven.” He looked over at Luna who had remained still at
his words.
“I am sorry,” said Rin.
“There is no need for apologies,” said Luna. “If my people fell they did so with honor in service to the Watch.”
“Describe this weapon to me,” said Meja. Rin gave her the description and Meja’s face grew dark.
“You know this weapon?” said Rin.
“Our lives just got much worse,” said Meja. “If Aurora is involved, the Harbinger is the least of our problems.”
Luna led us to the back of the cathedral where a set of doors held ornate carvings depicting the Rah Ven in both human and canine form. It looked like the scene of a hunt until I looked closer and saw that it was something more… intimate.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“This is a fertility temple. My people are very open about our relations, unlike other species,” Luna said as she smiled at me.
“We can use this doorway?” said Meja, changing the subject.
“I must take you through,” said Luna. “Only a Rah Ven can keep this portal stable enough for you to use it.”
“Fine, the sooner the better. We need to stay on the move, and I need to find my monitor. I don’t want to run into Roman as we do this.”
“Can he really find us, even here?” said Samir. “It would seem we are quite safe.”
“When Aurora was sane and heading the monitors, Roman was her second. He was in charge of bringing in any monitor that went rogue.” She paused a moment as if reliving the memory. “It doesn’t happen often, but when it does it usually means a loss of life. Rogue monitors are dangerous and deadly.”
“Did this Roman stop them?” asked Samir.
“Once Roman was tasked with dealing with the rogues, we didn’t lose another monitor. He would find them wherever they hid, even across planes, and use his hammer. No one escaped him once he started looking for you. He was relentless and ruthless. He earned his name.”
“What did they call him?” asked Samir.
“They called him the Death Stalker,” Meja said as Luna opened the door that led back to my plane.
SIXTEEN
MARA DRESSED KALYSTA’S wounds and made her as comfortable as possible. Sylk had been gone for most of the day and she had begun to worry. She made her way down to the lower level to get something to eat when she heard the voices.
“Fan out, and search the property. He used to come here often thinking he was safe. Make this quick, it won’t be long before the Watchers arrive.”
It was Rael.
She almost dropped the bowl she held. She crept back upstairs to where Kal lay.
“Kal, Kal,” she whispered. Kal came to and opened her eyes.
“Wh—What is it?” she said “Where are we?”
Mara placed a hand over Kal’s mouth to silence her.
“Rael is here, we must hide before the Gyrevex find us,” said Mara.
She could hear the footsteps outside of the house. In moments they would be inside. She found the panel that accessed the safe room and helped Kal out of bed and into the small room. As the door closed behind them, a Gyrevex entered. It stood still for a moment, taking in the scene, and then left the room. In the safe room Mara let out a breath as the Gyrevex went downstairs.
“We should be good here until they leave,” said Mara.
“How did they know about this place? Isn’t this some kind of secret house Sylk has?” said Kal.
“I thought as much, but it seems Rael knows more about my master than I do. In any case we should be safe now.”
*****
Downstairs, Rael gathered the Gyrevex and began to create a portal.
“Nothing?” asked Rael.
The Gyrevex shook their heads.
“I didn’t think he would be here, but fortune favors the thorough.”
The Gyrevex stared back at him, silent.
“Try not to speak all at once. I know how to flush out our warrior. We kill two birds with one blade. I think it’s time for more ascendants to die, but first we must pay someone a visit.” He looked around the house as the portal formed itself before him.
“This is actually a cozy home. Burn it down,” he said and then stepped into the portal.
SEVENTEEN
NEW YORK CITY was a hive of activity. I loved and hated my city in equal measure. For all its size, I realized that it was small compared to the planes I had visited in the last few days.
“We must be careful, Dante. The Lotus will be waiting for us,” said Meja.
The Black Lotus. I hadn’t given them much thought since we left for the Records. They were an assassin team sent from the Warriors of the Way. They thought I had gone rogue. After what Meja did to Diana, I didn’t think they were too far off base. At first they wanted to bring me in, to control Maelstrom. Now it was kill on sight. Not just me, but anyone who helped me.
“Will they be pissed after Diana?”
Meja gave me a withering glance.
“They won’t be pleased. She will be replaced by her second, Monique. They will keep the triad intact.”
“Great, because we don’t have enough to worry about,” I said.
“Actually, we can’t pay attention to that right now. Hopefully we can remain under their radar, but we have to focus on the Harbinger and avoid Roman at all costs,” said Meja.
We blended into the crowds in midtown Manhattan, just another group of New Yorkers going somewhere in a hurry.
“Why him? It would seem Roman is as much a threat as Rael,” I said.
“Roman probably wants you alive for some purpose Aurora has planned. Rael, on the other hand, just wants the weapon. That does not require you to be alive for very long. In fact he probably prefers you dead.”
“That’s comforting,” I said.
“Those are the facts. We focus on the greater threat first, and right now that threat is Rael and the Gyrevex,” she said.
We turned on 42nd Street and headed to the public library.
“There are some old spaces in there we can use to stay off the Lotus’s radar,” said Meja. “We need to stop Rael and that means finding the ascendants of this plane.”
“How are we going to do that?” I said. I had no clue how we were supposed to find an ascendant. I knew they were important and that I may be one. That didn’t mean I knew what one looked like.
“We are not going to do anything. Since you have the use of your inner sight, you are going to use that to point us in the right direction,” she said.
“Can’t you locate them another way?” I didn’t look forward to using my inner sight. It always left me feeling out of sorts and disoriented.
We reached the front of the library. The sun blazed down 5th Avenue as we walked around to the side of the building. The doors on the 42nd Street side had been sealed for decades. I recognized the bas relief on the old brass doors and saw the owls in flight. It was the symbol of the monitors. Meja pushed several of the non-descript decorative elements in a particular sequence. The door whispered open and we entered a cool dark room. Diffuse light filtered in from the large windows. We were in some kind of meeting room.
“Your inner sight is the fastest way. Any other method we can use will alert Rael to our position,” said Meja. She began to arrange the furniture and seemed to be looking for something in one of the desks.
“This should help. It’s a focus,” she said as she handed me a small prism. “It should help mitigate the disorientation and keep you under the radar. We don’t want Rael knowing where we are.”
“Which is bad for us,” said Zen.
“Not for us, unless Kriyas are involved,” she said as she looked at me. “Then it’s bad for us. Sit down here.” She motioned me to a chair, and the rest of the group moved off to the side while Zen stood by the door.
“When you use your inner sight, make sure your weapon doesn’t manifest. We just want to know how many ascendants are left in the city. If your weapon appears we may as well stand on the tallest building and scream for Rael,�
� she said.
“We just need a count? What’s the point of this?” I said.
“All ascendants are connected on some level. This will help us determine how many are left. You won’t have to count, you will just know.”
“Then what?” I still didn’t know why she wanted to know how many ascendants were left. I knew she wasn’t telling me something.
“Make sure your weapon stays within, warrior,” she said as she stepped to the side.
I didn’t have much practice using my inner sight. It allowed me to see the true nature of things and most of the time that was unpleasant. Using it like this was new for me. I sat back in the chair holding the prism and closed my eyes, letting my mind be still. I felt my chi flow around me and pool in the center of my forehead. With my eyes still closed I was able to ‘see’ in a different spectrum. I kept still and felt for the ascendants. I didn’t know what to look for— and then I felt the tug. I felt a tether in my center that connected to something.
“I feel something,” I said.
“Follow that feeling. It should be your connection,” said Meja.
I mentally traced the feeling. It felt like a latticework of strands going in every direction. I knew how many strands there were as sure as I knew my name.
“Fifty,” I said. It was the number that came into my head. I opened my eyes and saw her shake her head.
“Shit, are you sure? There’s no time,” she said.
“I’m sure. Time for what?”
“Focus again. This time find the closest one to us.”
I closed my eyes and repeated the process. “He is close— about ten blocks away, south from here. I don’t have an address but I can show exactly where he is,” I said.
“How do you know it’s a he?” said Zen.
“I just do.”
“That’s good. Let’s get ready to move,” said Meja.
“Why are we doing this?”
“Do you know what an ascendant is?”
“I have an idea—”
“They are what stand between us and this plane falling into Lucius’s hands. Some of them know they are ascendants, many have no idea. Once the number falls below one hundred ascendants on any given plane, the barrier between planes weakens.”
Warriors of the Way-Pentalogy Page 27