by C Lee Tocci
“It’s back here!” he called to the others. Without thinking, he reached down to grab it. His fingers were within inches of it when something that felt like an invisible truck hit him. He landed on his back several yards away.
Devon came around the boulder at a dead run. Before Todd could stop him, he reached down, scooped up Ewa-Kwan and then ran back to where Lilibit lay. Todd, shaking his head with amazement, followed Devon back into the clearing.
Forcing open Lilibit’s fingers, Devon placed the stone in her cold palm. He stepped back and stood with the others, watching her.
Nothing happened.
Todd dropped to his knees, staring blindly at the lifeless girl. Marla leaned against Ulex, sobbing. The others stood, staring and confused.
Todd stood and walked away. Where would they go now? For some reason, going to Kiva without Lilibit seemed pointless. The others watched him. He couldn’t think of what to do next.
“We need to…” His voice trailed off. What did they need to do? Bury her? Go to the police? Tell them what?
A small cough dragged everyone’s eyes back to Lilibit. A gasp, barely a wheeze, seemed to tremble out of her corpse. Urgently, Todd ran back to her and lifted her into his arms.
In the pale light of the moon, it was hard to see, but it looked like the blue color was slowly fading from her skin. Her cheeks were still a ghastly pale.
And then, a faint twitch of her left arm quickly spread until her entire body trembled violently. She was still ice cold to the touch, yet sweat beaded on her brow. Her back arched and for several minutes, she flopped and twitched like a beached minnow. When the spasms finally stopped, her eyes opened.
Todd watched helplessly as a wave of hysteria built within Lilibit. He couldn’t blame her, and yet there was nothing he could do to stop it. She began to sob uncontrollably.
“Oh, knock it off, Lilibit.” Jeff’s voice was cold and sarcastic.
Stunned, they all turned to stare at Jeff.
Lilibit choked back a whimper and blinked at Jeff, his bloody arm hanging limply, a look of contempt on his face.
“If you’re going to cry like a baby every time you get a little snake bite, than you’re just too big of a loser to hang out with me.”
Todd’s first thought was to beat Jeff into a bloody pulp, but a glance at Lilibit changed his mind. Lilibit was biting back her sobs, working to understand his words.
“Well,” she hiccupped, “stars forbid if I’m not cool enough to hang out with Jeff.”
“I know,” Jeff nodded graciously, “that’s why I thought I’d drop you a hint.”
Still masked in the gloom of early morning, the offices of the Institute were still and silent.
Except for one office. High on the top floor, a cold unnatural light filled the domain of Syxx. And seated before his ebony slab desk, the motionless figure of the Deceiver sat as if petrified, his eyes were voids of white, life and intelligence having vacated his body.
Then, faintly at first, a tremble of movement twitched through his fingers. Spreading through his body, the contortions intensified. His head snapped back and, with a thrust from an unseen force, Syxx flew back from his chair and slammed against the battery of monitors mounted on the wall behind him. Blood dripped from his nose and ears, and, for the first time in centuries, fear dripped from his eyes.
The Assassin had failed. The Chee-Tola had been destroyed.
And still the child lived.
No further efforts could be wasted on subterfuge.
There was always a risk in acting too openly. The humans that were the most obedient were the ones who could be deceived into thinking that they served only themselves. In fact, he had long since learned that they preferred to deny his existence altogether, even when directly faced with it.
Yet the child was getting too close to the haven of Kiva. He would need to finish the task himself. Any consequences of exposure could be resolved after the child was terminated.
Syxx stood. Crossing to a wall of drapery, he pulled back the curtains to expose a set of doors leading to an exterior balcony. He opened the doors and looked out onto the glittering city below.
In one moment, the silhouette of Syxx was seen illuminated against the night.
The next, it was gone.
Hot and stabbing, the acid burnt her skin like a million scalding maggots, tearing and searing as they burrowed deep. Lilibit arched and flopped in pain, dragging her body towards the stream, hoping the cool water might soothe her wounds.
The serpent might be dead, but its poison was still doing its job. Todd and Jeff were already unconscious. As she crawled toward the stream, Lilibit could hear Marla trying to wake them.
“They’re burning up!” Marla was almost crying. “Devon! Nita! Wet more rags in the stream! We need to cool them down!”
Lilibit’s hands reached the water first. She tried to lower herself gently, but her arms gave out beneath her and she plunged face first into it.
“Lilibit! No!” Devon yelled as small hands grabbed at her, tugging her out of the water and back to the steam bank.
“Avanti, Lilibit!” Nita’s voice hiccupped with fear. “Wake up! You can fix this. You got a stone. You can fix anything.”
Lilibit was too weak to argue, she could barely think through the pain, but was Nita right? Could she “fix” this with her stone? Her fingers fumbled, her joints sore as she pulled her stone out of her picket and placed it against her cheek. Then she closed her eyes and laid her face against the cool soft silt of the stream bank.
Softly, she felt herself drawn out of her skin and into the sand. Her body was still aching, but it didn’t seem very important. Deep beneath her, she heard a songlike thrumming as if the earth were a stone with a million separate voices, all chiming in a complex harmony. There was some meaning to the song as well, but as hard as she tried, she couldn’t understand it. She strained to reach it, but couldn’t get any closer. When she tried to call out to it, her voice wouldn’t work.
She pulled back in frustration and like a slap, awareness of her aching body returned. The pain whipped her into a tortured frenzy and she pounded the earth with her arms and legs like a spoiled child.
She didn’t know how long she’d been lying on the stream bank, but when she looked up from her tantrum, she’d found that the world had changed again. She was still in the grotto, but the stream had risen and now the spit of sand she lay on was an island, with angry currents raging on both sides of her. The horses were still gone, but so were her friends. She was alone.
She punched the sand with a clenched fist. With each strike, a surge of water would rush down the canyon, sweeping through the grotto and coming closer and closer to swamping her little island, but she was half mad with the pain and couldn’t seem to stop. With a wordless scream, barely heard over the howling wind, she struck the earth one last time.
A wall of water barreled into the grotto, engulfing her. Pebbles and silt pelted her, ripping into the festering sores on her skin. She choked on the water, but before she could even remember to close her mouth and hold her breath, the wave passed, the wind died and the water fled downstream.
She fell to the ground, choking, soaked to the skin, and too exhausted to do anything more than lay pressed into the mud. The stream subsided and the floor of grotto reappeared, but where earlier there had been grass, brush and a few tenacious trees, now there was only gravel and stones. Nearby, something hummed urgently and painfully, she pushed herself up to look around.
Marla, Devon and Nita ran out from the cavern, the one that Ulex had made when he’d burst through to the surface.
“Lilibit? Are you alright?” Marla was frantic as she helped Lilibit to her knees. “We couldn’t move you! When that storm started, we tried to carry you into the cave, but you wouldn’t budge!”
The humming was louder than Marla’s voice. Blearily, Lilibit looked around and noticed a glint of pale pink on the gravel stream bank. She reached out and as her fingers wrapped
around it, the urgent buzzing died out, replaced by a faintly gurgling chime sound. Safe in her pocket, Ewa-kwan chimed in as well, the two stones speaking to each other, revealing knowledge that Lilibit could have shared, but was too exhausted to listen. It was still early afternoon, but everything was getting dark. Not dark like night, but dark like her eyes had given up working.
Her fingers still clutched around the new stone, she felt Donny’s arms lift her up and carry her into the cavern.
Then, the world went black.
Splat. Something cool and wet pressed down on Lilibit’s cheek. That roused her more than Nita’s babbling. She’d been chattering to her in Spanish, but when Lilibit let out a little moan, she switched over to English.
“Does that feel better?” Nita’s voice was overly cheerful, almost brittle as she placed another muddy leaf on her burning arm. “Mi Abuela, my grandmother, always said that my medicine bandages could make her feel better, even more than the doctor’s drugs. Even the bad days when she was too tired to get out of bed, I could tell that the bandages helped.”
The new stone in her hand thrummed anxiously, drowning Nita’s chatter into murmurs. She raised the stone to her cheek.
Boolakya it hummed. Over and over again. And behind the humming, Lilibit could hear it yearning, reaching out, and like the sound of a hungry baby, it was impossible to ignore.
“Here.” Lilibit’s throat was so dry, the words rasped almost soundlessly, but Nita stopped, mid-word, her eyes widening. “Her name is Boolakya and she wants to stay with you.”
Lilibit had no strength to move her arm, she just let it drop and uncurled her fingers. Marla and Devon hurried over from where they were taking care of Todd and Jeff. All three of them stared at the gleaming pink stone that sat in her palm.
Nita slowly reached out to take the stone and then stopped, a question in her eyes as she looked once more at Lilibit for permission. But Lilibit was spent and could only watch with hazy eyes.
Slowly, Nita’s fingertips touched Boolakya. She froze for a moment, and then grabbed it, clutching it tightly to her cheek. She stared, unblinking and unmoving, at the cavern wall.
“Nita?” Marla sounded concerned as she nudged Nita. Her voice grew more urgent as she repeated her name again and again. Finally Marla shook the younger girl, pulling her out of her daze.
Nita blinked and joggled her head to clear it. Lilibit wheezed and coughed dryly.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Lilibit!” whispered Nita, placing another muddy leaf on her forehead.
“Never mind about the leaves,” Marla snapped. “Get her some water, her lips are cracking.”
Nita scurried away as Marla wiped the mud off Lilibit’s arms and face. The wet cloth paused as it passed over her forehead.
“Devon,” Marla looked down with awe at Lilibit’s face. “Look!”
Marla’s finger glided over a cool spot on her forehead.
“Was that clear spot there before?” asked Devon.
“No,” answered Marla. “It’s the spot where Nita had put the last leaf.”
Lilibit closed her eyes. There was one spot on her forehead that was pain free, but the rest of her was still burning and aching.
“Nita!” Marla called. “Get over here!”
“I’m getting water!” Nita’s voice echoed from the stream.
“Never mind that now!” Marla yelled. “Come back here!”
Nita jogged back, grumbling in Spanish as she carried a bottle of water back.
“Try the ‘leaf thing’ again,” Marla said as she snatched the bottle from her hands.
Nita looked oddly at Marla before picking up one of the leaves, dragging it through the mud and then placing it on Lilibit’s arm. Quickly, Marla wiped off the leaf. Where it had laid was now a leaf-shaped patch of healed skin.
“It works!” Nita’s voice rang triumphantly. “My medicine bandages work!”
“Do it again!” Marla whispered.
Quickly, Nita began covering Lilibit’s face and arms with a blanket of muddy leaves. Devon ran out to gather more leaves.
Lilibit wondered if she was finally dying. Her arms and face had stopped hurting, but her torso and legs still burned, so she thought she couldn’t be dead yet.
“Do Todd and Jeff next,” she heard Marla say. “Let’s see if the leaves work on them too.”
Lilibit opened her eyes a crack. If she wasn’t so weak, she might have argued. As it was, she could only watch as Nita plastered muddy leaves all over the two boys. They looked like human bushes, but they stopped moaning and when Marla washed off the mud, their skin was pink and smooth underneath, the burn blisters fading as she watched.
Limp and lightheaded, Lilibit lost track of time. It seemed like hours before Nita finally remembered that she hadn’t finished bandaging her wounds. She scurried back and the relief was delicious.
When the leaves had washed away the last of the pain, Lilibit rolled over, vomited and then fell fast asleep.
Gil-Salla sat unmoving, her hands and feet splayed against the smooth red earth floor.
All night she sat, her eyes open yet not seeing the clay walls of the ancient hall nor the shifting shades of the flame. Her uneasiness had grown from a faint apprehension into a dread that froze her breath in her lungs. From deep within the earth, she felt the stirrings of the Enemy and heard the echo when he called for the Assassin. Fighting panic, she reached out to Keotak-se’s mind, only to find that he too had heard the summons.
Frantically, Gil-Salla searched with her fingertips while Keotak-se searched from the skies, seeking some trace of the Infant Stone Voice or the faintest scent of the Assassin. All night they searched fruitlessly.
The Earth trembled when the light of the Infant Stone Voice flickered and dimmed. Tears poured down Gil-Salla’s cheeks unheeded as she heard the despair of the Earth Stone.
Yet barely had her grief set in when Gil-Salla quavered with another revelation. Beneath her palms, the soil trembled with the news. The Assassin was dead. The Chee-Tola had been destroyed.
A glimmer of joy quivered from below. Tentative and weak, but there was no doubt, the light of the Infant Stone Voice was not yet extinguished.
Tears and sweat froze unheeded on her face. Her mind again leapt the void to speak to Keotak-se, praising him for his triumph. Yet Keotak-se’s response left her astonished. Whoever had slain the Assassin of the Vortex, it was not Keotak-se.
Yet who but a seasoned Stone Warrior, armed with the weaponry of Quapan could have defeated a Chee-Tola? And what Stone Warrior, besides Keotak-se, had not fallen to death or corruption over the past centuries? Could another Stone Warrior have survived, hiding all these centuries, to return at this time, when most needed? Or perhaps another force was rising, one that could defeat one of the Enemy’s most potent weapons?
Gil-Salla fought the urge to break from the Earth and rush to the Tower of Quapan. A search of the Archives of Kiva might give her a clue as to the identity of the conqueror of the Chee-Tola, yet she forced herself to remain focused. There would be time to study the ancient manuscripts when the Infant Stone Voice was safely within the sanctuary of Kiva. For now, she must remain vigilant.
While her palms listened to the whisperings of the soil, Gil-Salla sensed the eye of the Enemy sweep the mountains. Ice choked her heart as she felt the Enemy deploy. Reaching out to Keotak-se, she alerted him of the threat.
The Enemy was mobilizing. The Deceiver himself was advancing.
The moonlight flickered against Lilibit’s closed lids. Even though the stinging pain was almost gone, she still felt weak and groggy. She opened her eyes slowly. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the starlit glow, but her mind was slow to react.
A towering figure filled the opening, its silhouette blocking the moonlight. It advanced slowly, a long black shadow creeping over the rock floor. Darkness flooded the cavern.
Lilibit rubbed her eyes.
“Hey Ulex!” muttered Lilibit drowsily, “when did you get here?”
&nbs
p; Ulex glowed dimly in the dark. Two of his four sets of eyelids clicked open as he watched Lilibit squirm to her feet. She was heading for the cave entrance when Ulex put out his arm to stop her.
“It’s okay,” said Lilibit as she pushed aside a hand larger than her head. “I’m feeling better. I just want to go outside for a few minutes.”
Ulex looked as baffled as granite slab could look, but he let the girl pass. With wobbly legs, Lilibit stepped out of the cave. With a lumbering creak, the man from the Nether Rock followed her.
A shiver rippled up Lilibit’s back as she stared at the battered carcass of the beast. It lay against the canyon wall where the flash flood had pushed it.
“You know, Ulex,” she whispered, safe in knowing that he couldn’t understand her words. “I don’t remember much about anything, but these kinds of things,” she stared at the carcass, “this can’t be normal. Can it?”
She turned away from the serpent and climbed on to a boulder. Her chin in her hands, she stared at the moon and picked at the threads of her splintered memories.
And standing in the shadow of the bluff, Ulex kept watch, a stony sentry of the night.
Chapter Thirty Nine
Copper Herald
A stranger’s car pulling into the small town of Dry Creek was unusual enough to warrant a second glance from the old men drinking pop on the front porch of Jack Whitedeer’s hardware store. This car however, was so remarkable, it pulled the store clerks out from behind the counter and the women out from the I.G.A. Market. By the time the car rolled to a stop in front of the Morning Star Diner, it seemed half the town was out on the sidewalk or looking out their windows.
The old men laughed and buzzed as the long brassy orange limousine jumped the curb as it parked, tilting drunkenly. A short, wiry man with a face like a wrinkled shirt tumbled out of the driver’s door and scurried to open the rear passenger door. Yet all remarks stopped for several awestruck moments when the passenger stepped out on to the sidewalk. Some events are just too overwhelming for words.