12.21.12: The Vessel (The Altunai Annals)

by Killian McRae

  Dmitri’s hands slicked back his hair. “I can’t stand aside and watch you die. Please, Tlalli, we’ll find another way.”

  “If we destroy the amulet, they will have no beacon to direct them here. That is the other way. I shouldn’t have put this off so long. I should have learned from your experience in Gethsemane that delaying the end doesn’t help anything. I’m sorry, but this is the way it must be.”

  Shep jumped forward. “Wait, Gethsemane?”

  Victoria glared in his direction. “No talking about the Jesus question.” Then, turning back to Dmitri, she blew him a kiss. “Goodbye.”

  Dmitri dived, screaming, but she ported away, rematerializing out of his reach. Clutching the stone in her left hand, she raised it to the heavens, invoking the cosmos to her command. A thunderbolt rolled across the sky. Dmitri lunged, but she was too quick. Tlalli had called lightning and it answered her plea, arcing across the atmosphere to lick the catch of the amulet where its catch looped. In an instant, the electricity charged the beacon and bonded itself to his love’s body.

  “No!” Dmitri reached her, but it was too late. She had taken the power of the amulet within, and it could not be taken back.

  Alex and Shep were soon at her side.

  “What the hell was that?” the acolyte asked.

  With her eyes clenched shut, Tlalli shuddered. Dmitri knew that within, she was fighting for control. As Guardian, he had been through this ritual. Even he as a full-blooded Altunai had to muster all his self-discipline in order to master the power released into his body by the amulet.

  Alex pushed three fingers into Dmitri’s shoulder. “What’s going on? What’s happening to her?”

  “She consumed all of the amulet’s power.” Even he couldn’t believe she’d done it with without dying. “I don’t understand. Even with the power of two Altunai bonds, she’s still in essence a human. She won’t be able to take that much power for too long. It almost rips even me to pieces.”

  He reached out to her with his mind, hoping she would both hear him, and choose to listen. “Why did you do that? The energy will kill you.”

  He felt his pulse spike when she answered him back in his mind. “If I’m dead, we cannot use our bond to open the gate. At least this way humanity will be safe a little longer. Tell the Council the gate failed because of my insurrection. When they do find their way here, tell them I was to blame. By the time they arrive, everyone who knows the truth will have died, and Isis can’t use any human’s memory to discover how you loved me. Lie to Isis, tell her you love her. Survive.”

  He placed his hands on her arms, willing her to look at him, but the pain was too much for her to focus. “Why are you so convinced I’m in danger? It is the Vessel who is executed, and I swear I won’t let that happen. I’ll find a way to save you.”

  “You don’t understand,” she answered. “Ra set you up to fail. The night he stole me away from you, he told me that was my mission. I was supposed to tempt you, seduce you, and create a stockade of memories that would piss off Isis, so that you’d finally lose your influence over her. After the failure of the last colony under your watch, he wants an excuse that will convince his sister to get rid of you, once and for all.”

  “Impossible.” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, but the plot sounded too much like Ra for him to deny. “How could Ra have known I would fall for you, though? How would he know I’d fall so completely that I’d abandon my mission? You’re only a Vessel. Your influence isn’t strong enough to turn an Altunai heart by your will alone.”

  “I’m not just the Vessel. I’m not merely human. He’s been planning this for a long time. I am born of an Altunai father and a human mother. Osiris, Ra is my father.”

  Stones flew back and the nearby pillar shattered as Dmitri’s fist, driven by anger, drove forward. He wished he could feel the pain such a destruction should cause, but his fingers registered hardly more than an annoying sting. Suddenly, it all made sense: her beyond-normal abilities as a Vessel, her natural talent for turning people in her direction, her persistent ability to keep her mind shielded from his …

  “Your mother?”

  “One of his harem,” she informed him. “An Olmec he stole away to Altunatus, so that she could bear his child without the entrapment of immortality bonding would give her on Earth. And that’s why I can’t open the gate. Not only because they’ll harvest humanity, but because Ra lies in wait to destroy you. I’m sorry, I love you too much to let that happen.”

  And then he was out. He felt his mind being evicted from hers, like the Great Wall of China had come down between them. He tried to force his way back in, but it was like trying to punch a hole through a steel wall with a toothpick. She was impenetrable. Her eyes were blackened over, an indication that she had tapped into Earth’s energy field. How the hell was he supposed to pierce through that?

  As sweat started to glisten on Victoria’s brow, Alex grew restless. “What the hell do we do?”

  “Listen, proxy, this is no time for hysterics.” He rose to his feet, knocking the dust off his pants with the backs of his hands. Turning to Alex, he strong-armed his shoulders and pushed him down to face Victoria. “You’re connected with her. Her blood is in your veins. I need you to get a hold on her mind. Right now, the amulet is hijacking her will, and she’s tapped into Earth’s energy. It’s not only going to kill her, but there’s a chance she’ll take us all out in the process. She could destroy this planet if her instincts kick in and she tries to defend her body from harm. You need to find her and help keep her mind separate from the energy long enough for me to piss her off.”

  “Right. Wait, what?”

  Dmitri smirked. “If she wants to kick my ass, she’s going to need to be rid of the power to do it. Am I guessing correctly that the statue in your hand is carrying Cleopatra’s blood?”

  Alex looked with confusion to the figure he was white-knuckling, but Shep grabbed it from him and handed it over to Dmitri.

  “Shep, what are you doing?” Alex called out.

  Shep paid him no heed. “It does.”

  Dmitri palmed the statue with one hand and waved over its surface with the opposite one. As though made of ice, the head of the stone edifice melted under his influence.

  “Alex, if what I’m about to do doesn’t work at bringing her back, threaten to pour this into the ground, but only do it as a last resort.” Then, he turned to Shep. “I’m really sorry it comes down to this, Professor.”

  “Sorry about wh—”

  Shep stumbled back as Dmitri’s fist made contact with his lip. The pain bit through him, and the taste of blood on his tongue was instantaneous. Reaching to his injury, he pulled his hand away to find traces of the sanguineous liquid on his fingertips.

  “What the hell?” Shep rose to his feet, eying Dmitri with venom.

  No sooner were the words out of his mouth than another blow landed on his chin.

  Oh, it was on.

  Shep leapt forward, his hand reaching for Dmitri’s throat. Dmitri’s hands steepled as he pushed up through Shep’s hold, forcing his arms to circle out. Shep, quick to rise to the occasion, cocked back his fist and drove it forward. Dmitri lunged out of the way with little trouble, and the energy of the unconnected blow took Shep to the ground.

  “Scream, yell. Fricking make a sound, God damn it!”

  She had to hear him, had to feel that Shep was in danger. Love could distract a person from their own self-interest. If Victoria cared for this human in some way, she wasn’t about to sit back and let the God of the Afterlife take him. Alex would have been the more sensible target, but he needed that boy to draw her away from the energy that was surely starting to burn her soul. Dmitri had to get her attention, get her to pull away.

  Dmitri’s taunt only fueled Shep’s fire more. He rolled over on h
is back, determined to make another pass. He was too late; Dmitri straddled him as he gave him a stiff uppercut.

  “Screw you!” Shep barked. “I don’t want any part of this.”

  Dmitri landed another hit, then another. “What the hell do I have to do to get you to react, human? Rip your arm off? Call out for her, you son of a bitch.”

  Through a mouth full of blood, voice gurgling, Shep answered, “Why the hell would I call for Victoria?”

  “Because you love her.” Which he knew wasn’t true, but also knew would get the professor more riled up and out of control.

  Shep’s features became molten. “I love Christine, always, forever, and alone.”

  A glint came to Dmitri’s eye as his head cocked to the side, taking in Shep’s defiance. Of course, that was the solution. If he could not get the professor to shout out to Victoria in desperation, perhaps he could coax him into screaming at her for another reason. “Do you know how your wife died?”

  Through gritted teeth, Shep answered, “Yeah, you killed her.”

  Dmitri hissed, leaning over and placing his hands on Shep’s forehead. “True, Shep. But that’s not the whole story.”

  Shep blinked a few times as the vision born of his own eyes darkened and shifted, replaced by the illustrations filling his mind’s eye.

  -Ψ-

  Before him, Victoria stood shaking, her eyes terror-stricken and pleading. Her attire was modern, or at least, not too out-of-date. To his amazement, she spoke English in this memory.

  “Please. She’s not even one of mine anymore. She left The Order. Spare this one.”

  Dmitri shook his head. “You know I can’t do that. I’ve already shirked enough of my duties where you’re concerned, Tlalli. I’m determined to save you, and you’re determined to not let me. Your proxy is on the verge of discovering the truth. That tomb they’ve excavated, it holds too many secrets.”

  “But, she already knows half of it!”

  “True,” Dmitri conceded with a slow nod, “but she doesn’t have proof. I don’t want to, sweet, I really don’t. I tried to ignore it. It’s bad enough that Smyth is already going around shouting the truth he stumbled over. If the world knows Cleopatra was murdered, the next question becomes who killed her. I can’t have this traced back to us. Now, if you don’t want him to die, I must at least destroy her.”

  Victoria slumped. “Grant me this favor, Osiris. Let me be with her when she dies. Just let me comfort her.”

  He pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “Okay, love. I’ll give you that. But it must be done now.”

  Victoria nodded, her face wet with tears. Their embrace tightened as a flash of light enveloped them. When the brightness faded, they were no longer alone. Across a small space in a chamber—a burial chamber— sat a brown-haired, fair-skinned young woman, staring at a sketch of the glyphs she had copied from the wall before her. The paper had folded over, and the alignment of the pictorials on the page spelled out a message that had been encoded and forgotten for nearly two millennia.

  Dmitri slid back into the shadows, letting Victoria approach her alone.

  “Christine.”

  Shep’s heart seized. He understood suddenly what he was witnessing: his wife’s dying moments.

  Christine looked up with a gasp, surprised to find she was not alone. When she saw who stood before her, she sneered at the forsaken goddess. “What do you want?”

  “You can’t let Shep see that.” Victoria motioned to the paper in her hands.

  “Why the hell not? I’m not betraying any secrets of The Order. It’s on this wall, plain as day. Well, coded a bit, but nonetheless. Says right here: ‘The line of the Pharaoh was stomped by Sekhmet’s Paw while Osiris covered her prints across the desert.’ You killed Cleo? You killed your own proxy, and then worked with Osiris to make it look like a suicide? All this time, you lied to us, lied to me. You told me becoming your proxy would help protect me, protect Shep, but you killed her.”

  “Please, Christine, you don’t know the whole story. It’s not what it seems.”

  “No more of your rationalization,” Christine returned, folding her arms. “Shep’s looked like a fool because of what he’s claimed, and this will prove he’s been right the whole time. I don’t care if this exposes you, The Order, or even the Altunai. I’ve watched the man I love suffer for too long. But you wouldn’t understand. The only person you’ve ever loved is yourself.”

  Victoria’s eyes blackened. “I have loved beyond time and space, and I have lost and will lose far more because of it than you could ever imagine.” Through clenched teeth, she begged, “Please, Christine.”

  “Go to hell, Victoria.”

  Dmitri’s eyes began to dart around wildly as the earth beneath them began to shake. Sand from the desert floor above flowed into the pit, filling the spaces around their feet.

  “Shep will know everything!” Christine hissed. “Your existence, your name, your true legacy. And most of all, how you killed her. Shep!”

  Christine stumbled, barely able to stand. The earthquake made it difficult to move, and she fell to her knees. A voice of desperation was calling her name in the distance, and with a bitter tear Shep realized it was his own.

  Victoria turned back, looking over her shoulder at Dmitri in the shadows. “Kill her,” she spoke into his mind.

  “But Smyth ...” Dmitri tried to argue.

  Victoria’s head whipped left to right violently. “He’s chasing paper tigers. Take my proxy, if you must, but leave him be.”

  Stepping out of the shadows, he nodded, squaring up the trembling woman who had just noticed him.

  “Oh, my God,” she mouthed, her lip quivering. Turning toward the entry, which was open to the sky at the top of the chamber, she screamed out, “It’s Osiris! Shep, it’s Osiris!”

  She had barely gotten the last word out before the God of the Afterlife leapt forward, grabbed her, and spun her around.

  “I tire of doing your dirty work,” he hissed to Victoria.

  With a jerk, he placed a hand on Christine and ripped her life force from her. Sand was flowing from every direction. The carved wall beside them broke in two, chunks mixing in the rain of earth. Dmitri scowled at Victoria, ashamed of the emotionless expression. There was a flash. Everything went black.

  -Ψ-

  Dmitri’s face came into view as the vision faded.

  Shep’s mind said fight, but his body said cave. And his heart ... his lonely, bitter, angry heart said cry. Osiris. She hadn’t been yelling “beside us,” she had been yelling “Osiris”. With her last words, Christine had told Shep the name of her murderer.

  Dmitri cracked a satisfied grin when the tears fled from Shep’s eyes. It was just a matter of time before-

  Never had a blow felt so good as when Shep’s fist connected with Dmitri’s jaw. A deafening war cry broke from Shep’s throat as his rage manifested in lashings and pelts. With a thrust of his hip, Dmitri was thrown aside as Shep made for Victoria with all the revenge of a lover wronged, of a husband denied, of a man stripped of his reason to live.

  But, damn, Dmitri could move fast. In a split second, he had shifted and placed Shep in a head lock. The professor acted beyond rationality, reduced to a feral state. As he lashed about, he took Dmitri off his balance, throwing him into a stone pillar behind them.

  “What’s the matter, Shep? Not man enough to avenge your own wife?” Dmitri taunted.

  Shep became a wounded bull in pursuit.

  Alex looked over Victoria’s shoulder at the ruckus, utterly confused as the men tossed about on the floor.

  “Vick, you really need to pull out of this. They’re going to kill each other.”

  “Must ... protect ... Shep.”

  At first, Alex thought he had imagined it. Fr
om the corner of his eye, he saw no movement of her lips.

  “What?”

  Again the same statement, and this time he understood it was in his head. Victoria’s mind was connecting with his.

  “Yeah, protect Shep,” Alex agreed. “But you’ll need to wake up to do that.”

  “No!” she gasped aloud. “Can’t ... release … energy.”

  Alex leapt up and ran to the scuffle. “Dmitri, she’s talking.”

  The Guardian ported from under Shep’s fist and reformed next to Victoria. Pulling her into his arms, he leaned down to her. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you do this. I won’t let you die.”

  Both Alex and Shep dove for the safety of a pile of stones that had fallen when Dmitri broke the pillar, Alex with his palm pressed against the statue’s open neck, keeping the blood contained. The explosion that emanated from where Dmitri and Victoria’s body connected was made of light and heat, but both felt the blast push into them. When the corona of the blast had passed, they peered over the ledge and gasped. Basking in an orange glow, Victoria stood wrapped in glory. She stumbled back, pushing herself off Dmitri’s chest and examining her own luminescence with confusion. Shep forgot his rage for a moment and turned to Dmitri, a question on his lips, only to see that, just as Victoria was burning in reds and yellows, Dmitri was afire, cool flame of blues and greens crawling over his skin.

  “No!” she cried out, whipping her head from side to side. “How could you?’

  Shep inched toward Alex. “What’s going on?” he whispered.

  Alex motioned vaguely between the two. “I think he ...” A surge of—physical light was the only way to describe it—formed in the space between the two so-called deities. “… drew the power out of her and opened the gate.”