by Jason Letts
“You stay here and watch her die. Then you’ll know what it looks like when I do the same thing to you.”
Her patience snapped, but instead of giving him the satisfaction of seeing her become angry, she drifted away into the air. Soon she found herself in the middle of the desert. Alone, it confused her for a moment why she had appeared here. Once she recognized tracks leading out to the northwest, it all began to make sense. She listened, and soon enough the sound of gurgling and smacking lips came to her ears.
Suddenly reappearing and facing the opposite direction, she saw Goober crawl over a dune and roll down next to her. He looked at her for a moment, his face and body much thinner after a grueling journey through the desert. She couldn’t tell if he tried to exercise his power upon her, but she seemed unaffected regardless.
He scampered along the trail, sometimes using all fours and sometimes waddling in a stiff-legged jog. Clara kept up with him, hunching over during his frequent spills into the sand. His lips were terribly chapped, and the only reason they didn’t bleed was because the sand coated them. Still, he ran his tongue over them constantly as he sucked in air and propelled his emaciated carcass onward.
“Boy, you must be tryin’ to kill yourself. This desert’s ’bout to eat you alive!” she called.
Goober gazed at her dully, as though he were caught in an everlasting fit of boredom. Pulling himself out of the sand, he rolled his head underneath his arm and spoke to her from there.
“What fear have I of death, my most familiar companion? It’s not coming for me; it’s here.”
Trotting at an odd angle, he came to an abrupt stop and scanned the surroundings. He scratched a scab away from his forearm, flicking it away and letting the sore bleed freely. As fervent as he seemed about moving on, it was an awfully long pause.
“What’s the hold up? You didn’t get scared, did ya? You can trust your big sis, Clara. I won’t tell nobody,” she goaded.
“If I keep going now, they’ll know I’m coming. She’ll sense it,” the boy said.
“They gonna know you coming anyways. Don’t you worry yourself none about that,” she laughed. “And if you got it in your head to try your hand at dyin’, we’ll be glad to help with that as well. Mark my words, if you keep walking this way, the end’ll come even more swift than you’d of guessed.”
Her threat made him smile, and he tried to catch her in a hug. His lunge met nothing but air, leaving him sprawled out in the sand.
“Do you promise?” he squealed, but then his flash of excitement abandoned him. He curled up in the fetal position, blinking spastically after some sand got into his eye. “No, I heard that plenty of times before, but no one could do it. I’ve given up hope of dying, and felling my would-be liberator is always small recompense. Now I dangle my life like meat on a hook over hungry dogs. Not but one of you could do it, though the attempt would end like all the others.”
“You gotta mean Aoi, right? She’s powerful enough!” Clara realized, but Goober just shook his head and trotted along the tracks.
“The ninth of us cannot create death, but like the rest of us she can well experience it. All your puzzling will be for naught when I take control of Hakotin’s stone. The web will fall like icicles from a roof, and the sublime peace of nonexistence will come to us all.”
Dreading the outcome of these immutable forces on Mira, one waiting ahead and the other trailing behind, Clara left her despondent, morbid companion alone in this vacant desolation. By themselves, Arent and Goober both proved to be manageable, but to encounter both at the same time seemed a recipe for disaster. For Mira and her friends, there was little time left before their hopes for the future gave way to the events of the past, and not one could tell how it would all work out.
Chapter 9: The Other Half
When Clara returned to explain the situation, Ogden Fortst flinched and held himself still in a silent moment of contemplation. They had made much less progress than he’d hoped, and most of their layers had been consumed. Though they were in striking distance of their destination, it would be impossible for them all to get there in time to help. Finally, Fortst cast off his coat, letting it sink to the ground and reveal the muscular physique of a self-dependant wanderer.
“He must’ve slipped ahead of us after the river tore him away. Now those kids are walking into a trap, about to be pinched on both sides. I haven’t waited here this long to miss out when the action starts. Pray I get there in time,” he said, staring off into the hazy mass rising through the earth in the distance.
“We can take care of ourselves,” Jeana said as though trying to convince herself. “Mira needs all the help she can get.”
Fortst nodded, producing a disgusted grimace before bending over at the waist to stretch. He grumbled and sulked.
“I’d rather dip my toes in a pool of piranhas than run, but I’ll have to comfort myself with the knowledge that at the end of it I’ll be holding my old foe’s head.”
Even the thought of finally pinning Arent down in a place where he couldn’t escape made his heart start pumping. The flowing blood invigorated him, and he snorted air into his lungs to steel himself to the hardship of getting there. In the back of his mind, he knew running was just a convenient scapegoat for the real source of his apprehension, the destination. He’d be returning to the place of his great failing, when he tried to take the carafe for himself and his friends perished as a result.
“I’d better go with you,” Kevin spoke up, loosening his joints for the run. “I’m not in the best shape, but I might get there in time to make a difference.”
“No!” Fortst shouted, much louder than he meant to. He could see it all happening again right in front of his eyes. All of the pieces were coming together like they had so long ago. He was approaching the fabled palace with a new group of friends to battle the scourge who’d cast an eternal blight on his life.
He couldn’t risk making the same mistake again. Last time his error had given rise to an evil army of savage miscreants who tore their civilization apart. Failing this time would be worse, and he couldn’t have the loss of more friends on his sagging conscience.
“Stay here and look after your family,” he went on, putting a hand on Kevin’s shoulder. “You’ve got to know yourself. Neither the trek nor the fight is suited for you. The air will be as dry as it is here.”
Kevin frowned, running his hand through his heavily grayed hair. He was skeptical, but Jeana put her arm around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder.
“I guess we’ll have to play the part of the helpless parents,” she lamented. “If only there was something we could do.”
“You have done something,” Clara objected. “You gots two daughters doing the work for you.”
“Oh! I much prefer thinking of it as delegating the work to my able-bodied girls than thinking myself useless,” Jeana agreed, evoking Kevin’s laughter.
“Then it’s settled,” Fortst declared, looking back at the Ipswiches. “Follow my trail, but keep clear if the battle rages on when you arrive. And as for you, Clara, I’ll meet you there. Let’s hope you haven’t forgotten how to fight. We’re going to need you.”
Exhaling a deep breath, he scanned the unbroken stretch of sand between himself and his target. It was only these tiny grains that stood in the way of vengeance, redemption, and friendship. Pushing against the first few in his path, he started his solitary race to the top of the world.
Staring at the colossal mound of earth destabilized Mira’s core and left her on the verge of tears. The breadth of their journey earned her awe, and she couldn’t believe she had made it this far. Her battle with Widget, stalking undaunted into the siege alongside Darmen, and their clandestine mission aboard the ship were all logical ways for her life to end. But she was still alive, though the most important and precarious challenge waited before her.
Somehow her friends were still at her side as well. She knew none of them could’ve made it without all of them, and
it seemed like a blessing they were together after all this time. Still, the old fault lines hadn’t sealed completely. Mary used Chucky’s side to hide from Aoi.
“You don’t have to be afraid of me,” Aoi said to her.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Mary grumbled.
But Mira found one of the greatest comforts was having her sister around. It never failed to impress Mira how confident, fearless, and intelligent she was. Clara would be able to teach her so many incredible skills, once they’d met of course. As Clara explained the trouble in front and behind, one thing in particular caught Mira’s attention.
“The boy blabbed, ‘not but one of you can destroy me’. And it ain’t Aoi neither,” Clara revealed.
While Mira pondered, laughter broke out behind her.
“I’m guessing it’s not me!” Will chuckled, and Chucky expressed a similar sentiment.
“I’d love to do away with the kid if I could,” Vern sighed, “but I don’t see how my power could do anything more than put myself in danger.”
“Maybe it’s Roselyn. We all felt so much pain when she had her hands on the carafe shard. If she had the whole thing it might be enough to finish him,” Aoi suggested, but Roselyn shook her head.
“That was only because of how much pain she felt at the time. To get to the point where it’d do terminal damage, we’d probably have to kill her. If it’s up to me, I’d prefer we didn’t do that,” Will said, explaining for her.
There seemed to be so many possibilities and far too few solutions. Mira also thought Mary would be a good candidate.
“If you had the whole carafe, maybe then you’d be strong enough to use his power against him,” Mira said to Mary.
“I mean, maybe,” she stammered, “but I wasn’t able to before, and I’m not sure how this’ll be different. We still don’t know what it’ll do once it’s together in one piece. There’s no guarantee there’ll be any power boost or any access into other people’s minds.”
“That’s a good point. We can’t say for sure. It might also be tough to bank on having it put together before we need it too,” Mira accepted.
“What about you?” Chucky asked Mira, catching her off guard. “Maybe you’re the one who can find a way to rid the world of him. He let you touch him before after all.”
“Could be,” Will echoed from behind her.
Mira put her hand to her chin to think about it for a moment. What means did she have to destroy the one whose unerring objective was to tear everything apart? She had given up on her mechanical creations. The group didn’t have anything like a knife, a sword, or a spear she could use. Of course it wasn’t like she had a power to draw upon.
“That’s ridiculous,” she denied.
“You never know,” Vern shrugged. “You might have to do it.”
“But…I don’t want to kill anyone,” Mira replied, and it made her think of what she wanted to stand for. Remembering the bald twins and their vow of non-violence, she’d wanted to put an end to the fighting, not continue it. That’s what the carafe promised to deliver. Would she really have to be the one to dispel their greatest threat? “We managed him before, so maybe it won’t come to that. He doesn’t need to die, does he?”
She caught Chucky’s eyes at that moment, and his calm and sympathetic look told her she was missing something. Gloria and Jeremy snickered behind them. Chucky pursed his lips and brushed some of his shaggy hair.
“The only reason he let us go was because we weren’t here yet. The twin Specials told us his drive is beyond reason. It’s his power that’s doing this. The force in the universe that bends toward self-destruction lives inside of him. Would you really not take a chance to send it back to the web for a while?”
Mira cringed. It seemed like a sticky gray area, that the small boy who clamored after them was human yet something eternal and destructive controlled him. One could not live on without the other. The twins had said something else too, that she would have to choose between her ideals and her life. Is this what they meant? Certainly Goober wasn’t the only one threatening to force her into fighting.
“That boy never ever gonna stop. The way I sees it, it’s us or him face down in the dirt by the end of the day. He don’t seem to care much either way,” Clara added.
“What’s to say it isn’t you who can stop him?” Mira asked her sister.
“I completely forgot about me!” Clara laughed. “OK, I’ll go try and kill him. Back in a bit!”
Without the least sign of hesitation, Clara faded into thin air to test herself against the trailing foe. Everyone looked back, but the rolling hills and the dunes beyond made it impossible to see where they were. Mira gulped, feeling yet more apprehension about wanting to be a force for peace after her suggestion accidentally sent her sister off on an assassination mission. Whether something happened to him or her, she would be responsible. Nothing seemed to be working out the way she wanted.
Ahead of them, the rocky incline began. The mountainside off to the left rose steeply, but the slope to the plateau contained countless winding stone crevasses and embankments. Clara had said Arent waited for them at the top, but not a sign of life presented itself. Vern leaned forward and set his hands on the reddish-brown stones stacking their way to the top.
“Somewhere inside here, where it’s been buried for ages, is the thing we’ve been spending all this time searching for. Can you believe it? We’ve made it!”
He flashed a winning smile and wiped the back of his hand against his brow. Only this final climb remained until they were in position to seize what they had long sought. Mary too stepped forward, though concern and confusion marked her movements. She put her hands to her cheeks and pulled them down until she held them above her heart.
“He’s up there waiting for us, and I don’t think he’ll make it easy,” she said. “There’s something else though. It’s so strange. There’s this sensation I get from this place in the pit of my stomach. It’s not the carafe, rather a sort of aura that exists here. I can’t put my finger on what it means,” she whispered.
Vern lifted his leg to take the first step onto the hillside, but Clara appeared just at that moment and he set it back on the ground. She looked perfectly fine except for a look of annoyance trapped within her furrowed brows.
“Let me guess. It didn’t work out?” Vern posed.
“Whenever I focus on makin’ anything real, he just…” Clara growled, overcome with frustration.
“…Destabilizes it,” Mira finished. “I guess that means you’re not it. We know Jeremy’s not. Goober made short work of those flies. Who else?”
“Obviously it’s me,” Gloria sneered. “I can’t believe you got to me last. All I have to do is smother him with my sludge and he’ll be toast. You’d better cut me loose, or I won’t be able to help you when the time comes.”
“Good try!” Vern laughed. “But if you really want to face him, we’ll leave you two here so he can find you when he comes. You’ll probably have an easier time against Goober than climbing this mountain with your hands tied behind your backs anyway.”
Hoping onto the first ledge, Vern waved goodbye to Jeremy and Gloria. The others started to mount the packed conglomeration of smooth stone. Jeremy gasped, making all manner of disagreeable noises.
“You can’t leave us here! He’s going to get us. Aren’t you supposed to be our protectors? We spent ten years in school together!” Jeremy yelped.
Will immediately spun around, leaning one outstretched hand against a boulder. He had a sour grimace as though he’d been eating fire.
“Oh, now you expect us to help you because we were in school together. That’s rich! You’re about as merciful as you are clean. If you’re afraid of Goober, run away and hide. Otherwise you can wait for us to come back down. We don’t need you to get in our way.”
Red-faced, Jeremy shrieked loudly enough to make Gloria flinch beside him.
“You know what, you deserve what you’re gonna g
et! No, no, I didn’t mean that,” he groaned, calming himself. “Fine. I see how it is. But you’re making a mistake.”
Jeremy trotted to the beginning of the incline and strained his hip trying to lift his leg onto the ledge. Huffing, he scooted a little closer before tossing himself onto the hard stone surface. It took a moment before he rolled back onto his knees and started toward the next manageable step. Gloria grumbled behind him, though her flexibility made it much easier for her to start the climb.
Taking another step, Jeremy’s foot slipped, sending him head first against the rock. He crashed and emitted a loud “Oomph,” which made Mira turn back and look at the pathetic pair struggling to follow. She decided it was their choice to attempt the hike, though staring out into the distance allowed her to see a speck moving in the distance.
“What is it?” Chucky asked. He had Knoll tied to his back. Despite all the commotion, the child seemed to be sleeping peacefully.
“It can only be him,” Mira said. “When he gets to us, I don’t know what we’re going to do. Which one of us was he talking about?”
“I have no idea, but we’ll figure it out in time. You have to believe. Come on, let’s focus on this climb. It’d be a shame to make it all the way and get turned around now,” Chucky noted.
“You mean we wouldn’t get any credit for coming close? What about a consolation prize?”
Laughing, Chucky reached out to give her a playful shove on the shoulder.
Gloria slithered up the smooth, wind-blasted stone behind a loathsome group of misguided youths. Shaking the hair out of her eyes as she lifted her shoulder and got to her feet, she grinned condescendingly at Mira, who directed her friends into a crevasse.
“We can’t be too careful!” Mira warned. “He’s up there somewhere waiting for us.”
Her attempts to maintain control made Gloria giggle to herself. She had no idea what was really going on. Whether or not Arent met them at the top, Mira would get there and realize she was all alone. Will struggled to keep up, his feet constantly slipping out from under him, making him the first she would pick off as she worked her way to his defective leader. Mira would be the last to know they had made a grave mistake by underestimating her.